ICtbrarg 


Gift  of 

Mrs.    C.T.    Mills 
3-896 


?2w          #&% 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION; 

OR, 

THE  HEALTH-LAWS  OF  NATURE. 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION; 


OB, 


THE  HEALTH-LAWS  OF  NATURE. 


FELIX  IT   OSWALD," to.  D." 

<  v  .  ..  i  • 


"The  Laws  <5f  Natui«  proclaim  thVkusclvef  r.nd  ere' 
their  own  avengere.'*— TUOJIAS  CAMPAHELI^..        ;•  , 


NEW    YORK: 
D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

1,  8,  AND  5  BOND  STREET. 

1882. 


COMPANY. 


INTRODUCTION. 


"  Audendum  est,  ut  illustrata  veritas  pateat,  multique  a  perjurio  libe- 
rcntur." — LACTANTIUS. 

"  If  the  right  theory  should  ever  be  discovered,  we  shall  know  it  by 
this  token :  that  it  will  solve  all  riddles." — EMERSON. 

SINCE  the  dawn  of  the  Germanic  Reformation,  the 
history  of  science  has  been  the  history  of  a  triumphant 
progress.  The  spell  of  supernaturalisrn  is  broken.  The 
nations  of  the  Caucasian  race  have  awakened  to  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  fact  that  this  world  of  ours  is  not  gov- 
erned by  capricious  ghosts,  but  by  consistent  laws,  and 
that  the  study  of  those  laws  is  a  path  to  all  the  knowl- 
edge and  happiness  our  nature  is  capable  of  attaining. 
A  spirit  of  free  inquiry  is  abroad ;  we  have  found  that 
the  sun  of  nature  will  ripen  more  truth  in  a  single  year 
than  the  light  of  mysticism  in  a  century ;  branches  of 
science  which  had  withered  to  the  core  have  again  put 
forth  leaves  and  flowers,  and  begin  to  yield  abundant 
fruit. 

With  one  strange  exception.  The  science  of  health 
is  still  a  barren  tree.  Our  wealthy  minds  dwell  in 
poorly  tabernacles;  the  right  method  of  promoting 
man's  physical  welfare  seems  to  be  one  of  the  utterly 
lost  arts.  The  machinery  of  our  printing-presses,  loco- 


2052751 


6  INTKODUCTION. 

motives,  and  power-looms  lias  been  brought  to  a  won- 
derful degree  of  perfection,  while  the  mechanism  of 
our  own  bodies  is  getting  more  and  more  out  of  joint. 
"We  have  ascertained  the  weight  of  distant  worlds  and 
the  component  elements  of  rarely  seen  comets,  while 
the  theories  on  the  right  quantity  and  quality  of  our 
daily  meals  are  still  sadly  uncertain.  Our  horticultur- 
ists raise  vegetables  that  would  have  astonished  the 
cabbage-gardener  of  Felix  Sylla,  while  ninety  per  cent, 
of  our  children  are  so  puny  and  scrofulous  that  the 
Spartan  Gerontes  would  have  drowned  them  in  Eurotas 
to  put  them  out  of  their  misery.  The  presidents  of  our 
geographical,  philological,  and  astronomical  societies  are 
high-priests  of  an  almost  schismless  church,  while  in 
medicine  there  are  nearly  as  many  different  systems  as 
colleges.  Chemistry  has  raised  agriculture  to  the  rank 
of  an  exact  science  ;  bee-keepers  have  learned  to  apply 
new  methods,  and  to  avoid  old  mistakes ;  cattle-plagues 
are  getting  less  frequent,  but  the  diseases  of  the  human 
race  still  multiply  from  year  to  year. 

And,  still  stranger,  neglect — i.  e.,  indifference — can 
by  no  means  be  alleged  in  explanation  of  this  contrast. 
The  culture  of  the  humanities — if  I  may  use  that  word 
in  its  literal  sense — has  been  recognized  in  its  full  im- 
portance. The  study  of  anatomy,  biology,  and  medical 
chemistry  has  been  pursued  with  equal  zeal  and  success. 
In  those  branches  of  his  art,  the  average  country  phy- 
sician is  far  ahead  of  Galen  and  Hippocrates.  The 
cupboard  of  the  modern  paterfamilias  contains  drugs 
which  Avicenna  never  dreamed  of  in  his  physiology. 
The  constant  supervision  of  our  children  could  hardly 
go  further.  We  guard  their  health  with  all  the  care 
of  a  Grecian  systarchus — only  not  with  the  same  suc- 
cess. 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

And  yet  I  believe  that  this  anomaly  can  be  fully 
accounted  for.  About  a  century  after  Romulus  had 
laid  the  foundations  of  the  most  successful  empire,  an 
East-Indian  fanatic  made  the  most  successful  attempt 
to  undermine  the  foundations  of  human  happiness. 
His  original  purpose  was  laudable  enough :  he  tried  by 
meditation  and  prayer  to  "  discover  the  origin  of  evil  " 
— i.  e.,  of  the  misery  which  mankind  have  brought 
upon  themselves  by  violating  the  laws  of  Nature.  But, 
failing  to  diminish  those  evils  by  tracing  them  to  their 
true  cause,  he  conceived  an  idea  which  has  increased 
them  a  thousand-fold  :  the  unhappy  idea  that  life  itself 
is  a  curse,  the  gift  of  a  malevolent  demiurges,*  a  dis- 
ease whose  only  remedy  is  death.  Upon  this  principle 
he  founded  a  religion,  which  he  preached  with  the  elo- 
quence and  more  than  the  common  success  of  an  enthu- 
siast, for  at  his  death  two  million  of  his  countrymen 
had  become  converts  to  the  DOCTRINE  OF  ANTI-NATURAL- 
ISM, and  actually  believed  that  this  earth  is  a  vale  of 
tears ;  f  that  science,  industry,  and  all  worldly  pursuits 
are  utterly  vain  ;  and  that  a  man's  natural  instincts  are 

*  "  Many  a  house  of  life 

Hath  held  me — seeking  ever  him  who  wrought 
These  prisons  of  the  senses,  sorrow-fraught ; 
Sore  was  my  ceaseless  strife. 

But  now,  thou  builder  of  this  tabernacle — thou  ! 
I  know  thee  !    Never  shalt  thou  build  again 
These  walls  of  pain,  nor  raise  the  roof-tree  of  deceits, 
Nor  lay  fresh  rafters  on  the  clay  ; 
Broken  thy  house  is,  and  the  ridge-pole  split. 
Delusion  fashioned  it ! " 

(Edwin  Arnold's  translation  of  the  famous  summary  of 

the  "  Tripitaka.") 

f  "  The  first  truth  is  of  sorrow.     Be  not  mocked  ! 
Life  which  yc  prize  is  long  drawn  agony  ! " 

— Ibid.,  chap.  vii. 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

his  natural  enemies.*  A  moral  virus  seems  to  possess 
the  propagative  power  of  a  contagious  disease;  Bud- 
dhism spread  like  the  pest,  and  in  the  first  century 
of  our  chronological  era  the  most  terrible  of  all  Ori- 
ental plagues  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  fell  like  a 
poison-blight  upon  the  Eden  of  the  Mediterranean  na- 
tions. 

Whether  the   saints   of   a  later  Buddhism  f   have 
procured    us    an   inheritance   in   the   clouds,  whether 

*  "  The  second  truth  is  sorrow's  cause.     "What  grief 
Springs  of  itself,  and  springs  not  of  desire  ? 
Senses  and  things  perceived  mingle  and  light 
Passion's  quick  spark  of  fire  ! " 

(Edwin  Arnold's  translation  of  the  famous  summary  of 

the  "  Tripitaka,"  chap,  vii.) 

f  "  The  essence  of  the  Catholic  religion  is  the  center  dogma  of  Bud- 
dhism :  the  doctrine  of  the  worthlessness  of  terrestrial  life.  With  this 
difference  only,  that  Christianity  dates  that  worthlessness  from  the 
transgression  of  our  apple-eating  forefathers.  This  modification  im- 
plied the  fiction  of  a  liberi  arbitrii  indijferentice ;  but  it  was  required 
by  the  necessity  of  grafting  the  doctrine  of  Buddh  upon  the  mytholog- 
ical dogmas  of  Judaism." — Schopenhauer,  "  Die  Welt  als  Wille,"  vol.  ii, 
p.  694. 

The  patristic  dogmas  are  a  mixture  of  anti-naturalism  and  super- 
naturalism — a  worship  of  Buddh  in  the  guise  of  Jehovah.  The  gods  of 
Greece  were  the  deified  powers  of  Nature,  the  deified  patrons  of  hus- 
bandry and  science.  Our  gods  are  the  deified  enemies  of  Nature.  Not 
the  corrupted  form,  but  the  very  essence  of  Hebrew-Buddhism  doctrine, 
is  anti-natural.  Whole  nations  have  tried  to  put  its  doctrines  into  prac- 
tice. The  result  is  the  desert — physical,  moral,  and  mental.  The  Prot- 
estants still  ascribe  those  results  to  the  apocrypha  of  Catholicism. 
The  Catholics  ascribe  them  to  the  heresies  of  the  dissenters.  The  truth 
is,  that  those  apocrypha  and  heresies  have  saved  us  from  utter  ruin. 
Heterodoxy  is  an  attempt  to  naturalize  Christianity.  The  experiments 
of  the  patristic  era  have  proved  that  unmodified  anti-naturalism  must 
lead  to  madness  and  bankruptcy. 

"  It  can  not  be  an  accident.  Buddhism  and  Christianity  agree  in  all 
the  particular  peculiarities  that  distinguish  them  from  the  numberless 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

they  have  revealed  a  preternatural  light,  may  be 
mooted  questions;  but  it  is  certain  that  their  dogmas 
have  cost  us  three  million  square  miles  of  our  best 
earthly  inheritance,  and  that  their  rule  has  ob- 
scured the  light  of  common-sense  for  fifteen  hundred 
years. 

other  religions  of  the  world." — Bottger,  "  Vergleichende  Mythologie," 
vol.  i,  p.  217. 

So  numerous  are  the  resemblances  between  the  customs  of  this  sys- 
tem and  those  of  the  Romish  Church,  that  the  first  Catholic  missionaries 
who  encountered  the  priests  of  Buddha  were  confounded,  and  thought 
that  Satan  had  been  mocking  their  sacred  rites.  Mr.  Davis  ("  Transac- 
tions of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,"  vol.  ii,  p.  491)  speaks  of  the  "  celib- 
acy of  the  Buddhist  clergy,  and  the  monastic  life  of  the  societies  of  both 
sexes,  to  which  might  be  added  their  strings  of  beads,  their  manner  of 
chanting  prayers,  their  incense,  and  their  candles."  Mr.  Medhurst  ("  Chi- 
na," London,  1857)  mentions  an  image  of  a  virgin,  called  the  "Queen  of 
Heaven,"  holding  an  infant  and  a  cross  in  her  arms.  Confession  of  sins 
is  regularly  practiced.  Father  Hue,  in  his  "  Recollections  of  a  Journey 
in  Tartary,  Thibet,  and  China  "  (Hazlitt's  translation),  says :  "  The  cross, 
the  miter,  the  dalmatica,  the  cope,  which  the  Grand  Lama  wears  on  his 
journeys,  or  if  he  is  performing  some  ceremony  out  of  the  temple — the 
service  with  double  choirs,  the  psalmody,  the  exorcisms,  the  censer  sus- 
pended from  five  chains,  and  which  you  can  open  or  close  at  pleasure — 
the  benediction  given  by  the  lamas  by  extending  the  right  hand  over  the 
heads  of  the  faithful — the  chaplet,  ecclesiastical  celibacy,  religious  re- 
tirement, the  worship  of  the  saints,  the  fasts,  the  processions,  the  lita- 
nies, the  holy  water — all  these  "are  analogies  between  the  Buddhists  and 
ourselves."  And  in  Thibet  there  is  also  a  Dalai  Lama,  who  is  a  sort  of 
Buddhist  pope.  After  the  theory,  "que  le  diable  y  etait  pour  beaucoup," 
was  abandoned,  the  next  explanation  of  the  Jesuits  was  that  the  Bud- 
dhists had  copied  these  customs  from  Nestorian  missionaries.  But  a  se- 
rious objection  to  this  theory  is,  that  Buddhism  is  at  least  five  hundred 
years  older  than  Christianity,  and  that  many  of  these  striking  resem- 
blances belong  to  its  earliest  period. — (Clarke's  "  Ten  Great  Religions," 
p.  139.)  Compare  "Works"  of  Sir  W.  Jones,  vol.  5,  pp.  87,  168;  ibid., 
vol.  iii,  p.  105;  Mill's  "History  of  India,"  vol.  i,  p.  49;  Coleman's 
"Mythology  of  the  Hindoos,"  p.  193;  "Asiatic  Researches,"  vol.  vi,  p. 
liTl,  and  vol.  vii,  p.  40. 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

Their  hell-fire  and  witchcraft  dogmas  deluged  the 
earth  with  blood ;  the  victims  of  the  Crusades,  witch- 
hunts, and  inquisitorial  butcheries  *  would  cover  a  con- 
tinent with  corpses.  Their  anti-Nature  dogmas  f  para- 
lyzed industry,  the  study  of.  natural  science  was  super- 
seded by  the  worship  of  miracles,  rational  agriculture 
was  neglected,  ^  and  the  garden-regions  of  the  Mediter- 

*  "  They  felt  with  St.  Augustine  that  the  end  of  religion  is  to  become 
like  the  object  of  worship,  and  they  represented  the  Deity  as  confining 
his  affection  to  a  small  section  of  his  creatures,  and  inflicting  on  all 
others  the  most  horrible  and  eternal  sufferings.  .  .  .  Persecution  invari- 
ably accompanied  the  realization  of  these  doctrines,  and  their  normal 
effect  upon  the  character  was  to  produce  an  absolute  indifference  to  the 
sufferings  of  those  who  were  external  to  the  Church.  ...  In  every  prison 
the  crucifix  and  the  rack  stood  side  by  side." — Lecky's  "  History  of  Ra- 
tionalism," vol.  i,  pp.  326,  354. 

"Haeretici  non  solum  excommunicari  sed  juste  occidi  possunt." — 
Thomas  Aquinas,  "  Summa,"  vol.  ii,  art.  iii. 

"  If  a  man  believe  in  this  saving  of  souls  by  faith,  he  must  soon 
think  about  the  means,  and  if  by  cutting  off  one  generation  he  can 
save  many  future  ones  from  hell-fire,  it  is  his  duty  to  do  it." — (Rogers's 
"Recollections,"  p.  49.)  But  there  is  a  deeper  reason.  A  harmless 
religion  can  dispense  with  bloodshed.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  found 
no  difficulty  in  propagating  their  joyous  Nature-worship.  "  Procul  pro- 
fani!"  was  the  cry  of  the  Eleusinian  priests;  they  had  more  followers 
than  they  wanted.  But  the  authority  of  an  anti-natural  creed  can  be 
supported  only  by  violence.  That  support  withdrawn,  Nature  will  re- 
assert her  rights,  more  swiftly  if  aided  Wy  Science,  more  slowly  but  not 
less  surely  by  the  influence  of  an  instinctive  reaction  against  an  abnor- 
mal condition. 

f  Luke  xiv,  26 ;  Matthew  x,  34-37  ;  Luke  xviii,  22-30 ;  Matthew  x,  9, 
10;  Luke  ix,  3,  24;  Luke  xiii,  51 ;  Luke  x,  4. 

\  "  The  Spanish  Christians  considered  agriculture  beneath  their  dig- 
nity. In  their  judgment  war  and  religion  were  the  only  two  avocations 
worthy  of  being  followed.  Some  of  the  richest  parts  of  Valencia  and 
Granada  were  so  neglected  that  means  were  wanting  to  feed  even  the 
scanty  population  remaining  there.  Whole  districts  were  deserted,  and 
down  to  the  present  day  have  never  been  repeopled.  All  over  Spain 
the  same  destitution  prevailed.  That  once  rich  and  prosperous  coun- 


INTRODUCTION.  H 

ranean  peninsulas  became  hopeless  sand-wastes.*  Their 
anti-reason  dogmas  f  crushed  free  inquiry  ;  a  total  eclipse 
of  common-sense  and  science  followed  like  an  unnatural 
night  upon  the  bright  sunrise  of  Grecian  civilization. 
The  government  of  the  world  was  usurped  by  the 

try  was  covered  with  a  rabble  of  monks  and  clergy,  whose  insatiate 
rapacity  absorbed  the  little  wealth  yet  to  be  found.  The  fields  were 
loft  uncultivated ;  vast  multitudes  died  from  want  and  exposure ;  en- 
tire villages  were  deserted." — Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii, 
pp.  52,  57. 

"  Except  in  the  parts  occupied  by  the  Moors,  the  Spaniards  were 
almost  totally  unacquainted  with  irrigation." — Clarke's  "  Internal  State 
of  Spain,"  p.  116. 

*  "  The  fairest  and  f ruitfullest  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
precisely  that  portion  of  terrestrial  surface,  in  short,  which  about  the 
commencement  of  the  Christian  era  was  endowed  with  the  greatest 
superiority  of  soil,  climate,  and  position,  which  had  been  carried  to 
the  highest  pitch  of  physical  improvement,  is  now  completely  ex- 
hausted of  its  fertility;  ...  a  territory  larger  than  all  Europe,  the 
abundance  of  which  sustained  in  by-gone  centuries  a  population  scarcely 
inferior  to  that  of  the  whole  Christian  world  at  the  present  day,  has 
been  entirely  withdrawn  from  human  use,  or,  at  best,  is  thinly  inhab- 
ited. .  .  .  There  are  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  of  Northern  Africa,  of 
Greece,  and  of  Alpine  Europe,  where  the  operation  of  causes  set  in 
action  by  man  has  brought  the  face  of  the  earth  to  a  desolation  al- 
most as  complete  as  that  of  the  moon  ;  and  though,  within  that  brief 
space  of  time  which  we  call  '  the  historical  period,'  they  are  known  to 
have  been  covered  with  luxuriant  woods,  verdant  pastures,  and  fer- 
tile meadows,  they  are  now  too  far  deteriorated  to  be  reclaimable  by 
man,  nor  can  they  become  again  fitted  for  his  use  except  through  great 
geological  changes,  or  other  agencies  over  which  we  have  no  present 
or  prospective  control ;  .  .  .  another  era  of  equal  improvidence  would 
reduce  this  earth  to  such  a  condition  of  impoverished  productive- 
ness as  to  threaten  the  depravation,  barbarism,  and  perhaps  even  the 
extinction  of  the  human  species  !  " — G.  P.  Marsh,  "  Man  and  Nature," 
pp.  4,  43. 

f  John  xx,  29  ;  Matthew  v,  3  ;  John  v,  24 ;  1  Cor.  xiv,  37  ;  John  vi, 
47 ;  Galatians  i,  8,  9  ;  John  viii,  51 ;  1  Cor.  iii,  11 ;  John  xiv,  6  ;  1  Cor. 
xvi,  22. 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

priests  of  the  new  religion,  ministers  of  Gehenna,  who 
distributed  the  poison  of  pessimism,  and  fattened  upon 
the  spoils  of  the  dead.  Mankind  slept  in  a  fever-dream, 
and  a  swarm  of  vampires  sucked  their  life-blood  with 
impunity.  Knowledge  became  a  contraband ;  human 
freedom  and  human  reason  lay  prostrate  and  fettered 
at  the  foot  of  the  cross. 

But  there  was  one  science  which  could  not  be 
neglected  with  safety.  -  Here  and  there  the  sleepers 
began  to  awaken  from  their  torpor,  and  the  reign  of 
anti-naturalism  could  be  maintained  only  by  constant 
coercion — by  a  constant  and  merciless  suppression  of 
the  protests  of  outraged  Nature.  Rebellion  had"  to 
be  crushed  in  the  bud,  and  the  training  of  the  young 
was  made  a  preparatory  school  of  slavery  and  idiocy. 
The  resources  of  human  ingenuity  and  of  inhuman 
cruelty  *  were  exhausted  to  devise  an  effective  educa- 
tional system  for  the  denaturalization  of  the  human 
race,  for  the  suppression  of  the  instinct  of  freedom, f 

*  "If  any  sect,"  says  Ludwig  Borne,  "  should  ever  take  it  into  their 
heads  to  worship  the  devil'in  his  distinctive  qualities,  and  devote  them- 
selves to  the  promotion  of  human  misery  in  all  its  forms,  the  catechism 
of  such  a  religion  could  be  found  ready-made  in  the  code  of  several  mo- 
nastic colleges." — Compare  Llorente,  "  History  of  the  Inquisition,"  pp. 
129-142;  "  Codex  Theodosianus,"  lib.  ix,  cap.  1,  2;  ibid.,  lib.  xvi,  cap. 
10;  Palmer,  "On  the  Church,"  vol.  i,  p.  13  ;  Motley's  "Rise  of  the  Dutch 
Republic,"  vol.  ii,  p.  155 ;  Llorente,  pp.  273-275 ;  Rohrbacher,  "  Histoire 
de  1'^lglise  Catholique,"  tome  xvii,  p.  210;  Bedarride,  "Histoire  des 
Juifs,"  pp.  16-20;  Buckle's  "History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  i,  p.  500; 
Wachsmuth,  "  Der  Bauernkrieg,"  vol.  i,  chaps,  i-iii. 

f  "  All  the  slavish  submission  ever  exacted  by  the  caprice  of  pagan 
tyrants  was  now  brought  into  a  system."  —  Circourt,  "  Histoire  de 
1'Espagne,"  p.  282. 

"  The  more  a  man  was  taught  the  less  he  would  know ;  for  he  was 
taught  that  inquiry  is  sinful,  that  intellect  must  be  suppressed,  and  that 
credulity  and  submission  were  the  first  of  human  attributes." — Buckle's 
"  History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii,  p.  74. 


INTRODUCTION.  13 

of  the  love   of  truth,*   of   Nature,  f   of  health,:}:   of 
beauty,4*   of    mirth,  |    of    earthly  happiness,A   of    the 

*  "  The  fathers  laid  it  down  as  a  distinct  proposition  that  pious 
frauds  are  justifiable  and  even  laudable,  and,  if  they  had  not  laid 
this  down,  they  would  nevertheless  have  practiced  it  as  a  necessary 
consequence  of  the  doctrine  of  exclusive  salvation.  Paganism  was  to 
be  combated,  and  therefore  prophecies  of  Christ  by  Orpheus  and  the 
Sibyls  were  forged,  lying  wonders  were  multiplied  and  ceaseless  calum- 
nies poured  upon  those  who,  like  Julian,  opposed  the  Church.  Thia 
tendency  triumphed  wherever  the  supreme  importance  of  these  dogmas 
was  held.  Generation  after  generation  it  became  more  universal,  it 
continued  till  the  very  sense  of  truth  and  the  very  love  of  truth  were 
blotted  out  from  the  minds  of  men" — Lecky's  "History  of  Rationalism," 
vol.  i,  p.  395. 

f  "  It  was,  moreover,  wrong  to  take  pleasure  in  beautiful  scenery ;  for 
a  pious  man  had  no  concern  with  such  matters.  ...  On  Sunday  it  was 
sinful  to  walk  in  the  fields  or  in  the  meadows,  or  enjoying  fine  weather 
by  sitting  at  the  door  of  your  own  house." — Buckle's  "  History,"  vol.  ii, 
pp.  305,  313. 

$  "  Bathing,  being  pleasant  as  well  as  wholesome,  was  a  particularly 
grievous  offense ;  and  no  man  could  be  allowed  to  swim  on  Sunday.  It 
was,  in  fact,  doubtful  whether  swimming  was  lawful  for  a  Christian  at 
any  time,  even  on  week-days,  and  it  was  certain  that  God  had  on  one 
occasion  shown  his  disapproval  by  taking  away  the  life  of  a  boy  while  he 
was  indulging  in  that  carnal  practice." — Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  312. 

"  As  bathing  was  a  heathenish  custom,  all  public  baths  were  to  be 
destroyed  "  (by  order  of  the  Spanish  clergy),  "  and  even  all  baths  in  pri- 
vate houses."— Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  p.  44. 

*  "  It  was  improper  to  care  for  beauty  of  any  kind." — Ibid.,  vol.  ii, 
p.  306. 

i  "  Even  on  week-days,  those  who  were  imbued  with  religious  prin- 
ciples hardly  ever  smiled,  but  sighed,  groaned,  and  wept.  .  .  .  One  pious 
elder  had  acquired  distinction  by  his  faculty  for  what  was  termed  '  a  holy 
groan.'  He  used  to  weep  much  in  prayer  and  preaching ;  he  was  every 
way  most  savory.  Even  among  young  children,  from  eight  years  old  up- 
ward, toys  and  games  were  bad  ;  and  it  was  a  good  sign  when  they  were 
discarded."— Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  304,  305. 

A  "  A  Christian  must  beware  of  enjoying  his  dinner,  for  none  but  the 
ungodly  relished  their  food.  By  a  parity  of  reasoning  it  was  wrong  for 
a  man  to  wish  to  advance  himself  in  life,  or  in  any  way  to  better  his  con- 
,."— Ibid.,  p.  313. 


14.  INTRODUCTION. 

confidence  in  the  trustworthiness  of  our  natural  intui- 
tions.* 

Hence  the  difficulties  of  the  social  reformer.  "While 
other  sciences  had  been  merely  neglected,  the  science  of 
human  nature  had  been  sedulously  perverted.  Else- 
where we  found  only  vacant  halls,  here  a  strongly  gar- 
risoned bastile.  In  arts,  industries,  and  the  objective 
sciences,  the  path  of  former  cultivators  could  still  be 
traced  through  the  neglected  fields;  the  progressive 
educator  had  to  force  his  way  through  formidable  ob- 
stacles. 

The  field  of  education  has  ceased  to  be  an  ecclesias- 
tical allodium,  but  before  we  can  cultivate  the  soil  we 
have  to  uproot  a  -jungle  of  poison-weeds.  Our  medical, 
physiological,  and  dietetic  theories  are  still  interwoven 
with  countless  prejudices.  The  antagonism  of  mind 
and  matter  is  still  an  established  dogma.  The  rapid 
progress  of  scientific  discovery  has  not  furthered  the 
study  of  human  nature,  because  man  is  still  treated  as 
an  alter  ens,  a  being  governed  by  laws  apart  from,  or 
even  opposed  to,  those  of  Nature  in  general.  An  ap- 
peal to  supernatural  agencies,  whose  inefficacy  in  veter- 
inary surgery  has  long  been  conceded  by  all  but  idiots, 
is  still  a  favorite  expedient  in  the  treatment  of  human 
diseases.  Anti-naturalism  is  still  more  prevalent.  Nat- 
ure and  our  natural  instincts  are  still  supposed  to  con- 

*  "  According  to  this  code,  all  the  natural  affections,  all  social  pleas- 
ures, all  amusements,  and  all  the  joyous  instincts  of  the  human  heart 
were  sinful.  .  .  .  The  clergy  looked  on  all  comforts  as  sinful  in  them- 
selves, merely  because  they  were  comforts.  The  great  object  of  life  was 
to  be  in  a  state  of  constant  affliction.  Whatever  pleased  the  senses  was 
to  be  suspected.  ...  It  mattered  not  what  a  man  liked  ;  the  mere  fact  of 
his  liking  it  made  it  sinful.  Whatever  was  natural  was  wrong." — Buck- 
le's "History  of  Civilization,"  vol.  ii,  pp.  312,  314.  (Supported  by  a 
vast  array  of  original  quotations.) 


INTRODUCTION.  15 

spire  for  the  destruction  of  our  health  and  happiness. 
Sweetmeats,  fruits,  cold  water,  and  fresh  air,  whatever 
recommends  itself  to  our  innate  senses,  is  regarded  with 
suspicion ;  repulsiveness  and  healthf ulness  are  still  syn- 
onyms. A  list  of  "  staple  medicines  "  is  a  list  of  staple 
poisons.  With  a  large  class  of  medical  practitioners 
alcohol  still  ranks  as  a  remedial  agent,  and  even  as  an 
article  of  food.  It  is  well  known  that  children  and 
animals  detest  the  smell  of  tobacco  and  the  taste  of 
brandy,  coffee,  tea,  and  pungent  spices,  but  the  signifi- 
cance of  that  aversion  still  remains  unheeded.  Our 
day  of  leisure  is  still  the  dreariest  day  in  the  week ;  the 
welfare  of  the  soul  is  still  supposed  to  be  incompatible 
with  earthly  pleasures.  We  have  a  thousand  mythol- 
ogy-schools for  one  gymnasium ;  the  importance  of 
physical  culture,  the  interdependence  of  soul  and  body, 
and  the  moral  influence  of  health,  have  hardly  begun  to 
be  realized.  Even  in  the  dog-days  parents  still  think 
it  necessary  to  torture  their  children  with  woolen  un- 
der-garments  and  greasy-made  dishes.  Scrofula,  con- 
sumption, and  the  evidence  of  our  noses  have  not  yet 
taught  us  that  fresh  air  is  preferable  to  prison-smells. 
Millions  of  homes  are  still  afflicted  with  the  curse  of 
the  night-air  superstition.  In  short,  we  have  not  yet 
outgrown  the  prejudice  against  the  trustworthiness  of 
our  natural  instincts,  the  baneful  result  of  the  natural  de- 
pravity dogma.  There  is  no  hope  of  recovery  while  our 
daily  food  is  such  a  poison,  no  chance  of  progress  while 
our  feet  are  tied  with  such  shackles.  The  specters  of 
the  middle  ages  will  not  vanish  till  the  Science  of  Life 
has  been  freed  from  the  fallacies  of  anti-naturalism. 

The  object  of  the  present  volume  is  to  indicate  the 
most  mischievous  of  those  fallacies,  and  to  suggest  the 
best  means  of  renaturalizing  our  system  of  physical 


16  INTRODUCTION. 

education.  I  lay  no  claim  to  the  merit  of  having  ex- 
tended the  path  of  knowledge  ;  I  have  merely  dared  to 
pursue  it  to  its  legitimate  end.  I  have  neither  aug- 
mented nor  improved  the  weapons  of  free  inquiry,  but 
I  have  tried  to  demonstrate  the  possibility  of  applying 
them  to  what  I  consider  their  most  important  purpose. 
For  health  is  more  than  a  means  of  happiness ;  it  is 
happiness  itself.  Disease  has  no  consolation  but  the 
hope  of  recovery.  Salvation  means  healing.  For  a  dys- 
peptic Eurystheus  the  apples  of  the  Hesperides  come 
too  late.  Without  health,  no  earthly  acquisitions  are 
w.orth  their  price  ;  our  superlative  spectacles  are  a  poor 
substitute  for  the  superlative  eyes  of  the  ancients. 
"  Mental  perfection  "  might  be  a  compensatory  acquire- 
ment, if  it  were  not  for  the  circumstance  that  only  a 
healthy  body  can  be  the  temple  of  a  healthy  mind.  A 
mere  toothache  will  bias  the  thoughts,  the  sentiments, 
and  even  the  principles  of  the  wisest  man,  as  surely  as 
a  small  fissure  will  mar  the  music  of  the  best  flute. 
And  a  weakly  man  is  half  sick.  Physical  vigor  is  the 
basis  of  self-reliance.  The  health  of  an  effeminate 
person  is  a  flame  that  can  not  weather  a  storm.  And 
the  chief  problem  of  life  would  be  solved  if  we  could 
regain  the  longevity  of  our  forefathers.  Life  would 
again  be  worth  living.  The  seed  of  our  youth  would 
have  time  to  yield  a  harvest ;  a  laborer  might  hope  to 
enjoy  the  fruit  of  his  toil,  and  the  vague  yearnings 
after  a  post-mortem  existence  in  the  clouds*  would  van- 
ish with  the  doubts  about  the  value  of  the  present 

*  "  Agnosticism "  (skepsis)  "  is  by  no  means  incompatible  with  the 
belief  in  the  possibility  of  a  future  existence,  nor  with  the  poetry  of  that 
belief.  Nothing  can  be  franker  or  manlier  than  the  meditations  of  Soc- 
rates on  the  threshold  of  an  unknown  world,  or  the  still  grander  allegory 
of  the  Edda-mythus :  '  No  mortal  can  know  what  Odin  whispered  in  the  ear 
of  his  son,  when  Baldur  mounted  the  funeral-pile.'  " — Gotthold  Leasing. 


INTRODUCTION.  17 

world.  Health,  strength,  and  long  life,  were  once  the 
free  gifts  of  our  All-mother,  and  we  may  yet  regain  our 
forfeited  birthright,  but  we  can  not  hope  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  Nature  till  we  cease  to  worship  her  enemies, 
till  we  cease  to  consult  the  oracle  of  a  life-hating  fa- 
natic, and  to  disregard  the  teachings  of  our  life-pre- 
serving instincts.  When  we  begin  to  heed  the  consist- 
ent revelations  of  the  God  of  Nature,  rather  than  the 
contradictions  of  his  alleged  deputies,  we  shall  find 
on  this  side  what  we  sought  beyond  the  grave — we 
shall  regain  our  earthly  paradise. 

"  Audendum  est  sapere"  Let  us  dare  to  use  our 
eyes.  The  night  is  giving  way/  The  obscurantists 
have  protected  their  dogmas  by  treating  every  torch- 
bearer  as  an  incendiary,  but  at  the  approach  of  dawn 
they  shall  ring  their  fire-bells  in  vain. 

FELIX  L.  OSWALD. 

CINCINNATI,  October,  1881.  • 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
DIET. 

Dietetic  abuses  the  principal  cause  of  human  degeneration — Physio- 
logical effects — Redeeming  influences — Hygienic  regeneration — 
The  safeguards  of  Nature — Simple  tastes  of  children — Their 
study  as  a  dietetic  criterion — Stimulants — Their  repulsiveness 
to  normal  men — Infantine  diet — Milk — Best  substitutes — Wean- 
ing— Wet-nurses — The  nurses  of  the  Pays  de  Vaud — Argyll 
peasants — Ionian  Islanders — Baby-food — Xenophtm's  recipe — 
Hygienic  precautions — Man-food — Haller's  definition — Natural, 
artificial,  and  anti-natural  diet — Common  errors — Peptic  stimu- 
lants— Spicing  and  cooking — Concentrated  food — Objections  to 
— Biological  conjecture — Perfect  health — Uncooked  food — Ex- 
perience of  French  soldiers — Vegetable  diet — Its  great  variety 
— Semi-animal  food — Eggs,  milk,  and  butter — Cheese — Objec- 
tions to — Brewer's  yeast — Fastidiousness — Inconsistencies  of 
dietetic  purists — Best  food  for  various  climates — For  different 
seasons — Summer  diet — Frugivorous  nations — Fresh  fruit — 
Hygienic  value  of — Frugality — Its  original  meaning — The  regi- 
men of  the  Cyropsedia — Roman  dinners — Cornaro — Dietetic 
reformers — Lacour,  the  'longshoreman — "  quatorze  oignons  " — 
Commissariat  of  Turkish  soldiers — Carlists — Experience  of  a 
newspaper  correspondent — Bread  as  an  exclusive  diet — Silvio 
Pellicc— The  prisoners  of  the  Khedive — Russian  convicts — The 
story  of  Nebuchadnezzar — Polenta-meal — Diet  of  a  Corsican 
farmer — Marvels  of  abstinence — The  soldiers  of  Lucknow — 
Shamyl — Grecian  philosophers — Lycurgus — Spartan  soup — Phil- 
osophic symposia — The  Mosaic  health-code — Strange  prejudices 
— Dietetic  predilections — Papuan  tidbits — Locust-caters — Pan- 
dc-monte — Clay-eaters — Cannibalism — The  Borneo  Dyaks — An 
Algerian  anthropophage — Dr.  Alcott's  suggestion — Flesh-food — 
Popular  fallacies — Cold  climate — Vegetable  fat  vs.  meat — Vege- 
tarian athletes — Vegetable  diet  as  a  brain-food — Illustrations — 
Animal  diet — Its  physical  and  mental  influence — Man  a  frugiv- 
orous  animal — Stimulants — The  poison-habit — Stimulants  and 
poisons  as  synonymous  terms — Unnatural  habits — The  secret  of 


20  CONTENTS. 

PACE 

their  persistence — Progressive  vices — Self-deceptions — Tea  and 
coffee — Alcohol — Pungent  spices — Salt — Non-stimulating  diet — 
Its  indirect  advantages — Gluttony — Its  principal  causes — Indi- 
rect remedies — The  grape-cure — Cold  water  in  summer-time — 
Superstitious  dread  of — Occasional  surfeits — Out-door  exercise 
the  best  remedy — Want  of  appetite — Animal  instincts— Dietetic 
caprices  —  Morbid  appetencies  —  Idiosyncrasies  —  Dyspepsia — 
Curable  by  a  change  of  diet — Bill  of  fare — General  rules — Dietet- 
ic aphorisms — Intervals  between  meals — Four  meals  a  day — Rest 
after  repletion — Hygienic  importance  of — Jules  Virey's  experi- 
ments— Best  time  for  dinner — Edinburgh  tradesmen — Siesta — 
Fasting — Gonaque  Hottentots — Eating  between  meals — Early 
habits — Dieting  for  health — Antiseptic  foods — Hygienic  con- 
science— General  reflections 27 

CHAPTER  II. 
IN-DOOR    LIFE. 

Domestic  habits — Baneful  prejudices — .The  air-famine  of  large  cities 
— Saltaire — Suburban  homes — Ventilation — Impure  air — Sim- 
ple remedies  —  Ventilatory  contrivances — "Rain-shutters" — 
Bedrooms — The  night-air  superstition — Its  utter  absurdity — 
Illustrated  by  analogies — By  the  habits  of  instinct-guided  creat- 
ures— By  the  experience  of  hunters  and  soldiers — "  Draughts  " 
— The  troglodyte  habit — Gaseous  food — Dr.  Langenbeck's  ex- 
periments— Dio  Lewis — Cold  air  not  the  cause  of  pulmonary 
disorders — Cave-dwellers — Opinion  of  a  menagerie-doctor — In- 
fluence of  in-door  life— Suggestive  statistics — Factory-slaves — 
The  genesis  of  consumption — Protests  of  Nature — Jean  Paul — 
City  children — Their  hunger  after  life-air — Shamyl — Popular 
prejudices — Ignorance  not  the  principal  cause — Mistrust  in  our 
natural  instincts  —  Healthy  homes — A  model  nursery — The 
foundling-ward  of  the  Ursulines — Kindergarten — Nursery  abuses 
— Domestic  gymnastics — Influence  of  sedentary  habits — Study- 
hours — City  schools — Defective  ventilation  —  Recess-rooms  — 
The  best  writing-desk — Domestic  sanitaria — "  Colds  " — Fallacy 
regarding  their  origin — Their  real  cause — Fireside  comforts — 
Aids  to  domestic  habits — Domestic  happiness — Pets — Moral 
household  remedies — Baths — Hydropathy — The  cold-water  ma- 
nia— Sponge-baths — Bedrooms — The  best  bed — The  evening- 
hour , 74 

CHAPTER  III. 
OUT-DOOR   LIFE. 

Out-door  exercise  a  panacea — Its  remedial  influence — On  the  effects 
of  intemperance — On  pulmonary  disorders — Hunters  and  herd- 
ers— Their  immunity  from  lung-diseases — The  Gauchos — In-door 
life  can  become  a  second  nature — The  hygienic  instincts  of 
children — Their  love  of  out-door  sports — The  paradise  of  child- 


CONTENTS.  21 

FACE 

hood — Kindergarten — Bathing  in  sunshine — Solaria — Warm 
sand  —  Play-grounds  —  Out-door  exercise — Boy-pens — Factory- 
children — Goethe  on  education — The  Ilydriotes — Garden-homes 
— Farm-work — Suggestions  for  city  dwellers — Athletic  sports — 
Storing  up  health — A  remedy  for  colds — The  perspiration-cure 
— Stinting  our  life-air — Jean  Paul's  aphorisms — Vacation-trips 
— Dr.  Jordan's  plan — The  Ilefcld  pcdagogium — Tourist's  outfit 
— Roughing  it — Foot-sacks  and  portable  beds — Benefit  of  pedes- 
trian tours — In  hardening  the  constitution — In  dispelling  preju- 
dices— Wet  clothes — Night-air — Cold  spring-water — South-Sea 
Islanders — Outfit  of  a  Canadian  lumberman — Summer  life — Re- 
frigerating diet — Greasy  made-dishes — The  cause  of  sun-strokes 
— Camping  in  open  air — Hardiness  —  Modern  effeminacy — 
Strength  not  incompatible  with  delicacy  and  skill — Leonardo  da 
Vinci — Free  Saturdays — An  hygienic  Sabbath — Mountain  ex- 
cursions— Forest-air — The  Puritanical  Sabbath — Out-door  devo- 
tion— Worshiping  God  in  his  own  temple — Out-door  exercise 
the  best  safeguard  against  certain  vices — A  Grecian  allegory — 
Winter  sports 103 

CHAPTER  IV. 
O  YMNASTICS. 

Physical  vigor  the  basis  of  health — Exercise  as  a  peptic  stimulant — 
Dr.  Boerhaave's  opinion — Curing  diseases  mechanically — The 
secret  of  Asklepiades — Practical  proofs — A  remedy  ad  princi- 
pium — The  interdependence  of  physical  and  moral  health — Sin- 
ning against  our  bodies — Death-bed  repentances — St.  Francis  of 
Assisi — The  fallacies  of  asceticism — Exercise  as  a  cosmetic — 
Grecian  gymnastics — The  neglect  of  physical  education — Its  pri- 
mary cause — The  war  against  Nature — Buddhism  and  the  Chris- 
tian ascetics — The  night  of  the  middles  ages — Consequences  of 
anti-naturalism — Physical  degeneration — The  lost  races  of  South- 
ern Europe — Revival  of  naturalism — Gymnastics  as  a  branch  of 
public  education — Ancient  gymnasia — The  Olympic  games — 
Out-door  sports  and  domestic  gymnastics — Children  not  natural- 
ly sluggish — Nursery  exercises — Defective  development — Half- 
made  men  —  Undeveloped  muscles — Arm-exercises — Grapple- 
swings  and  health-lifts — Precautions — Race-courses — Foot-rac- 
ing— The  heroes  of  the  Iliad — Scandinavian  sagas — Mexican 
runners — Hemerodromes — Systematic  training — The  drill-mas- 
ters of  the  Janizaries — Leaping — A  simple  apparatus — Cham- 
pion jumpers — Joe  Ireland — The  champion  of  Crotona — A 
daring  feat — Spear-throwing — German  gcr-wcrfers — Target-prac- 
tice— Influence  of  gymnastics  in  imparting  an  easy  deportment 
— Goethe's  aphorism — Climbing  trees — Value-of  gymnastic  ac- 
complishments— Gymnastic  apparatus — Asthma-cure  —  Lifting 
and  carrying  weights — Dr.  Winship's  exploits — Milo  of  Crotona 
— Wrestling — National  pastimes — Revival  of  the  Olympic  festi- 
vals— A  suggestion — Games  of  skill — Riding  and  swimming — 
Aquatic  sports — Dr.  Anderson's  theory — Testimony  of  a  train- 


22  CONTEXTS. 

PAGE 

ing-ship  surgeon — Analogies — Hard  work — Moral  influence  of 
physical  training — Boat-racing — Best  time  for  gymnastic  exer- 
cises— Female  education — Physical  vigor  of  savages — Of  an- 
thropoid apes — Of  ancient  and  mediaeval  athletes — Regenera- 
tion   116 

CHAPTER  V. 
CLOTHING. 

Artificial  teguments — Requirements  of  a  frigid  climate — The  plan  of 
Nature — Superfluous  clothing — Impediments  to  physical  devel- 
opment— Swaddling-clothes  and  flounces — Infant  mortality — 
Statistics  of  Northern  cities — Best  dress  for  babies — Cold  air  not 
the  cause  of  "  colds  " — Dr.  Franklin's  opinion — Bacon's  maxim 
— Suggestive  facts — Hardiness  of  savages — Of  our  forefathers 
— The  dress  of  a  Roman  peasant — Darwin's  Firelanders — Coalc's 
hints  on  health — Tonic  influence  of  fresh  air — Air-baths — 
Hardy  habits — Their  invigorating  influence  on  the  digestive  sys- 
tem— Disadvantages  of  heavy  garments — Brush-coats — Triple 
blouses  vs.  fur — The  winter  dress  of  a  fashionable  lady — Dress 
reform — Jenny  Lind — Corsets  and  crinolines — Warmed  writing- 
desks — Chevalier  Edelkrantz  on  fur  mantles — Frigid  climates — 
Winter  dress  of  our  Northern  Indians — Mackinaw  hoods — Neck- 
wear— Our  natural  hair  the  best  protection — Tippets  and  fur 
caps — Under-clothing — Flannel  undershirts — Chamois-leather — 
Scotch  plaids — Summer  dress — Midsummer  misery — The  gamins 
of  Capo-Liddo — Absurdities  of  modern  civilization — The  dread 
of  nudity — Head-gear — Traveling  bareheaded — The  Emperor 
Hadrian — Sir  John  Sinclair — Adair's  medical  cautions — The 
fashion-mania — Flounces  and  gewgaws — The  "organ  of  orna- 
mentativeness  " — Military  uniforms — Thorwaldsen's  dictum — 
Foot-notes — Dio  Lewis's  plan — Barefoot  boys — The  author  of 
"Entile" — Natural  sole-leather — The  philosophy  of  clothing. . .  149 

CHAPTER  VI. 
SLEEP. 

Automatic  functions — Sleep  a  restorative  process — Requisite  amount 
of  sleep — For  children — For  adults — In  disease — Dr.  Page's 
plan — Healthfulness  of  village  children — Due  to  sounder  sleep 
— Dormitories — Silence  and  subdued  light  the  best  hypnotics — 
Abuse  of  narcotics — Cradling — Stupefaction  not  slumber — Mor- 
bid sleeplessness — Different  causes  of — Best  remedies — Mid- 
night serenades — A  hint  to  nurses — The  power  of  habit — 
Captain  Barclay's  experience — Going  to  sleep  at  short  notice — 
Sleeping  in  day-time — Italian  nights — The  night-air  dread  and 
other  superstitions — The  curse  of  pessimism — Noontide  naps — 
The  siesta-hour — Analogies — Semi-nocturnal  animals — Rambles 
by  moonlight — Workshop  misery — Sleep  in  disease — Nature's 
panacea — Pestalozzi's  opinion — Insufficient  sleep — Effects  of — 


CONTENTS.  23 

PAGB 

Illustrated  by  historic  facts — Insomnia  and  madness — Cure  for 
sleeplessness — Dr.  Caldwell's  experiments — Robert  Burton's 
recipe — Prognostics  of  longevity — Sound  sleepers — Goethe  and 
Mirabeau — Dreams — Influenced  by  diet — Dream-land  adventures 
— Hard  beds — Bedrooms  in  summer — Best  location  for  dormi- 
tories   168 

CHAPTER  VII. 
RECREA  TION. 

Happiness  our  normal  condition — Pessimism  a  symptom  of  disease 
— Periodic  recreations — Hygienic  importance  of  the  festivals  of 
the  ancients — Saturnalia — Public  amusements  in  ancient  Rome 
— Circeiises — Free  pleasure-resorts — Asceticism — Hardships  of 
modern  civilization — Religious  pessimism — Joyless  laws — The 
"  worship  of  sorrow  " — Mirth  as  a  remedial  agent — Analogies — 
Recreation  a  physiological  necessity — Ennui — Starved  souls — 
Mirth  and  longevity — Dr.  Brehm's  experiment — Physiological 
influence  of  grief  and  despair — Historic  examples — Inexpensive 
amusements — Nursery-pastimes — Playthings — Recess-hours  and 
evening  recreations  —  Saturday  night — Vacations — A  Kinder- 
park — Best  recreation  for  school-children — Playgrounds — Wood- 
land excursions — Fun — Happy  homes — Sunday  amusements — 
Puritanical  tyranny 181 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
REMEDIAL  EDUCATION. 

The  health  laws  of  Nature — Non-medicinal  remedies — Prevention  of 
disease — Medical  fallacies — Suppression  of  symptoms — Drugs — 
Their  legitimate  use — Popular  delusions — Removing  the  cause — 
Dr.  Jennings's  plan — Curable  and  incurable  diseases — Definition 
of  disease — Sickness  an  abnormal  condition — Remedial  instincts 
— Infantine  diseases — Overfed  babies — Dr.  Page  on  nursery 
management — Consequences  of  overfeeding — The  abuse  of 
drugs — Paregoric — Scrofula — Favored  by  which  circumstances 
— Dietetic  remedies — Fresh  air — Mediaeval  superstitions — The 
king's-evil — Radical  error— Immunities  of  out-door  laborers — 
Summer  diet — The  Traubcn-kur — Natural  remedies — Pulmonary 
disorders — Bronchitis — Croup— A  simple  remedy — Dangerous 
palliatives — After-effects — Worms — A  symptom  rather  than  a 
cause  of  disease — Drastic  medicines — Diarrhoea — Causes  of — 
Overeating — Irritating  iugesta — Best  remedy — Constipation — 
Aperient  medicines — Objection  to — Abuse  of  patent  laxatives — 
The  bran-bread  cure — Fruit  and  molasses — Legumina — Graham 
— Out-door  exercise  vs.  drugs — Secret  sins — Physiological  causes 
— Vice  and  indolence — Vice-centers — Gymnastics — The  moral 
influence  of  physical  exercise — Rickets — Mai-nutrition — Precoc- 
ity— Intemperance  and  gluttony — Household  remedies — The 
poison-habit — Hereditary  influences — Counteracting  such  ten- 


24  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

dencies — Chlorosis  or  green-sickness — A  malignant  form  of  dys- 
pepsia— Horseback-exercise — Tonic  drugs  only  palliatives — The 
stimulant  delusion — Consumption — Not  an  incurable  disease — 
The  records  of  the  dissecting-room — Pulmonary  consumption 
not  necessarily  hereditary — Goethe  and  Chateaubriand — Impru- 
dent habits — Impure  air  the  original  cause  of  tuberculosis — 
Pulmonary  scrof u  a — First  symptoms — A  crucial  test — The  air- 
cure — Forlorn  hope — Pierre's  case — Health  without  drugs — Dr. 
Schrodt's  conclusion — Anti-naturalism — The  delusions  of  pessi- 
mism— Analogy  between  moral  a'nd  physical  fallacies — Practical 
illustrations — Homoeopathy — Mistrusting  our  natural  instincts — 
Medical  reform 198 

CHAPTER  IX. 
HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS. 

Providential  safeguards — The  children  of  Nature — Their  salutary 
instincts — Life  under  abnormal  conditions — The  limits  of  nat- 
ural instincts — Intuition  at  fault — Mineral  poisons — Curious 
facts — Poisons  in  disguise — Scutari  sherbet — The  cook  of  the 
Freres  Proven9eaux — Early  impressions — Forestalling  tempta- 
tion— The  magic  of  associated  ideas — Fresh  air — Hardiness  of 
young  children — Physiological  habits — Dietetic  instinct — Inci- 
dental advantages  of  vegetarianism — Dangers  of  flesh-food — 
Sausage-makers  and  their  secrets — "  Bologna  cows  " — Eggs  and 
milk  vs.  meat — Principiis  obsta — Nursery  reform — The  Laconic 
method — Drunken  Helots — Aggressive  virtue — City  boys — To- 
bacco-smokers— Unexpected  result  of  a  physiological  experi- 
ment— StinTcewitz — Frederick  the  Great — Coffee,  tea,  and  pun- 
gent spices — Evening  dinners — Dental  hygiene — Cutting  a  third 
set  of  teeth — A  natural  dentifrice — St.  John's  bread — The 
diseases  of  the  eye — Ophthalmia — Precautions — Forest-hues — 
Forestalling  accidents — Gymnastic  training  the  best  safeguard 
— "  Constructiveness  " — Precocious  prurience  —  Professor  We- 
ber's advice — Dietetic  remedies — Hygienic  rules  and  aphorisms.  226 

CHAPTEK  X. 
POPULAR  FALLACIES. 

A  logical  distinction — "Presumptive  fallacies" — Reasoning  from 
false  premises — The  natural-depravity  dogma  the  root  of  the 
worst  delusions — The  leading-strings  fallacy — Swaddling  and 
cradling — A  lesson  from  Nature — Indian  babies — The  children 
of  the  poor — Young  South-Sea  Islanders — The  nostrum  fallacy 
— The  secret  cause — Non-medicinal  remedies — The  stimulant 
fallacy — Dram-drinking — "Exhilarating  beverages  " — Tonic  bit- 
ters— Self-deception — Poisons  in  disguise — The  cold-air  fallacy 
— Cold  a  popular  explanation  for  all  possible  disorders — Strange 
delusions — "  Draughts" — Catarrh — Its  supposed  and  its  real 
cause — The  fever  fallacy — Popular  prejudices — Frugivorous  na- 


CONTENTS.  25 

PAOK 

tions  exempt  from  climatic  diseases — Historical  facts — The 
origin  of  fevers — Dietetic  febrifuges — The  Spa  fallacy — Water- 
ing-place superstition — An  expensive  delusion — The  power  of 
faith — Woodland  air  and  mountain  rambles  vs.  mineral  water 
— The  Traubcn-kur — Hygienic  homes — The  ascetic  fallacy — 
The  origin  of  asceticism— -Self-torturers — Supposed  antagonism 
of  body  and  soul — Joy-haters — The  struggle  against  Nature — 
Its  practical  consequences — Perversion  of  natural  instincts — The 
religion  of  the  future — Regenesis 242 

2 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

DIET. 

"Blessed  are  the  pure,  for  they  can  follow  their  inclinations  with  un 
punity." 

UNNATUEAL  food  is  the  principal  cause  of  human 
degeneration.  It  is  the  oldest  vice.  If  we  reflect  upon 
the  number  of  ruinous  dietetic  abuses,  and  their  im- 
memorial tyranny  over  the  larger  part  of  the  human 
race,  we  are  tempted  to  eschew  all  symbolical  interpre- 
tations of  the  paradise  legend,  and  to  ascribe  the  fall 
of  mankind  literally  and  exclusively  to  the  eating  of 
forbidden  food.  From  century  to  century  the  same 
cause  has  multiplied  the  sum  of  our  earthly  ills.  Sub- 
stances which  Nature  never  intended  for  the  food  of 
man  have  come  to  form  a  principal  part  of  our  diet ; 
caustic  spices  torture  our  digestive  organs ;  we  ransack 
every  clime  for  noxious  weeds  and  intoxicating  fluids ; 
from  twenty  to  thirty-five  per  cent  of  our  breadstuffs 
are  yearly  wasted  on  the  distillation  of  a  life-consuming 
fire  ;  vegetable  poisons,  inorganic  poisons,  and  all  kinds 
of  indigestible  compounds  enslave  our  appetites,  and 
among  the  Caucasian  nations  of  the  present  age  an  un- 
exampled concuiTence  of  causes  has  made  a  passive 
submission  to  that  slavery  the  habitual  condition. 


28  PHYSICAL   EDUCATION. 

Dietetic  abuses,  alone,  would  amply  account  for  all 
our  "  ailments  and  pains,  in  form,  variety,  and  degree 
beyond  description " ;  the  vitality  of  the  human  race 
would,  indeed,  have  long  succumbed  to  their  combined 
influence,  if  their  effects  were  not  counteracted  by  the 
reconstructive  tendency  of  Nature.  Every  birth  is  an 
hygienic  regeneration.  The  constitutional  defects  which 
degenerate  parents  transmit  to  their  offspring  are  modi- 
fied by  the  inalienable  bequest  of  an  elder  world — the 
redeeming  instincts  which  our  All- mother  grants  to 
every  new  child  of  earth.  Individuals  may  deprave 
these  instincts  till  their  functions  are  entirely  usurped 
by  the  cravings  of  a  vicious  appetency,  but  this  per- 
version is  never  hereditary ;  Nature  has  ordained  that 
all  her  children  should  begin  the  pilgrimage  of  life 
from  beyond  the  point  where  the  roads  of  misery  and 
happiness  diverge.  As  the  golden  age,  the  happy  child- 
hood of  the  human  race  returns  in  the  morning  of  every 
life,  the  normal  type  of  our  primogenitor  asserts  itself 
athwart  the  morbid  influences  of  all  intermediate  gen- 
erations ;  the  regenesis  of  every  new  birth  brings  man- 
kind back  from  vice  to  innocence,  from  mysticism  to 
realism,  from  ghost-land  to  earth.  For  a  time  those 
better  instincts  thwart  the  influence  of  miseducation  as 
persistently  as  confirmed  vices  afterward  thwart  the  suc- 
cess of  reformatory  measures ;  but,  if  the  work  of  cor- 
rect physical  culture  were  begun  in  time,  our  innate 
propensities  themselves  would  conspire  to  further  its 
purposes  and  bar  the  boundary  between  virtue  and 
vice  which  conscience  often  guards  in  vain.  The  temp- 
tations that  beset  the  path  of  the  adult  convert,  do  not 
exist  for  the  wards  of  Nature.  To  the  palate  of  a  nor- 
mal child,  alcohol  is  as  unattractive  as  corrosive  subli- 
mate ;  the  enforced  inactivity  of  our  limbs,  which  after- 


DIET.  29 

ward  becomes  dyspeptic  indolence,  is  as  irksome  to  a 
healthy  boy  as  to  a  wild  animal,  and  a  young  Indian 
would  prefer  the  open  air  of  the  stormiest  winter  night 
to  the  hot  miasma  of  our  tenement-houses.  Few  smok- 
ers can  forget  the  effects  of  the  diffident  first  attempt — 
the  revolt  of  the  system  against  the  incipience  of  a 
virulent  habit.  The  same  with  other  abuses  of  our 
domestic  and  social  life.  If  we  would^  preserve  the 
purity  of  our  physical  conscience,  we  might  refer  all 
hygienic  problems  to  an  unerring  oracle  of  Nature. 

The  appearance  of  the  eye-teeth  (cuspids)  and  lesser 
molars  marks  the  end  of  the  second  year  as  the  period 
when  healthy  children  may  be  gradually  accustomed  to 
semi-fluid  vegetable  substances.  Till  then,  milk  should 
form  their  only  sustenance.  As  a  substitute  for  the 
nourishment  of  their  mother's  breast,  cow's-milk,  mixed 
with  a  little  water  and  sugar,  is  far  superior  to  all  pat- 
ent paps,  Liebig's  compounds,  and  baby-soups,  which 
often  induce  a  malignant  attack  of  the  dysenteric  com- 
plaint known  as  "  bowel-fever "  or  "  weaning-brash," 
unless  palliated  by  still  more  condemnable  astringents 
and  soothing-sirups.  In  France  the  professional  wet- 
nurses  of  the  Pays  de  Vaud  are  generally  engaged  as 
nourrices  de  deux  ans ;  but  mothers  whose  employ- 
ment does  not  interfere  with  their  inclination  in  this 
respect  may  safely  nurse  their  children  for  a  much 
longer  period.  The  wives  of  the  sturdy  Argyll  peas- 
ants rarely  wean  a  bairn  before  its  claim  is  disputed  by 
the  next  youngster;  and  the  stoutest  urchin  of  five 
years  I  ever  saw  was  the  son  of  a  poor  Servian  widow, 
who  still  took  him  to  her  breast  like  a  baby.  Animals 
suckle  their  young  till  they  are  able  to  digest  the  un- 
modified solid  food  of  the  species ;  and  the  best  method 
with  weanlings,  therefore,  is  perhaps  that  of  the  Ionian- 


30  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Islanders,  whose  toddling  infants,  as  Dr.  Bo'denstedt 
noticed,  partake  of  the  simple  repast  of  their  parents — 
unleavened  maize-cakes  and  dried  figs — and  are  often 
permitted  to  exercise  their  teeth  on  a  fresh-plucked  ear 
of  sugar- corn.  But,  in  countries  where  the  repast  of 
parents  is  anything  but  simple,  the  best  food  for  young 
children  is  a  porridge  of  milk  and  boiled  rice  or  oat- 
meal, with  a  little  sugar,  perhaps,  or  a  few  spoonfuls  of 
apple-butter  in  summer-time.  Of  such  simple  dishes  a 
child  may  be  permitted  to  eat  its  fill,  but  they  should 
be  served  at  regular  intervals  and  never  be  taken  hot. 
Heating  our  food  is  one  of  the  many  devices  for  dis- 
guising its  natural:  taste,  and  sipping  hot  and  cold 
drinks,  turn  about,  is  far  more  injurious  to  the  teeth 
than  the  penchant  for  sweetmeats  which  children  share 
I  with  savages  and  monkeys.  Beginning  with  five  light 
meals  a  day,  the  number  may  be  gradually  reduced  to 
three,  after  which  a  system  of  fixed  hours  should  be 
strictly  observed,  till  the  symptoms  of  appetite  manifest 
a  corresponding  periodicity,  thus  saving  mothers  the 
trouble  of  providing  baby-titbits  at  all  possible  and 
impossible  hours  of  the  day.  Healthy  children  of  five 
take  readily  to  an  exclusively  vegetable  diet,  which  is 
often  preferable  to  city  milk  and  always  to  flesh-food. 
Xenophon,  in  his  miscellaneous  "  Anabasis,"  mentions 
a  tribe  of  Bithynian  coast-dwellers  whose  children  were 
prodigies  of  chubbedness,  "  as  thick  as  they  were  long," 
-.  and  remarks  that  said  chubs  were  fed  on — boiled  chest- 
Irats.  Baked  apples,  pulse,  macaroni,  whipped  eggs, 
bread-pudding  seasoned  with  sugar  and  a  drop  or  two 
of  lemon-flavor,  and  such  fruits  as  mellow  pears,  rasp- 
berries, and  strawberries,  can.  be  readily  assimilated  by 
all  but  the  weakliest  nursery  cadets. 

But  toward  the  end  of  the  seventh  year  the  advent 


DIET.  31 

of  a  sccoftd  and  sturdier  set  of  teeth  suggests  the  pro- 
priety of  exercising  the  jaws  on  more  solid  substances. 
A  child  of  seven  should  graduate  to  a  seat  at  the  family 
table ;  or,  rather,  the  family  table  should  offer  nothing 
that  a  child  of  seven  can  not  digest.  It  does,  though, 
as  a  rule,  and  parents  who  buy  their  meals  ready  made, 
or  who  have  resigned  themselves  to  evils  from  which 
they  would  save  their  children,  should  still  regulate 
their  bill  of  fare,  both  in  quality  and  in  quantity,  by 
the  rules  of  hygiene  rather  than  by  those  of  etiquette 
or  convenience,  till  the  age  of  confirmed  habits  puts 
them  beyond  the  danger  of  temptation. 

Before  entering  upon  those  points,  I  must  premise 
a  few  words  on  the  main  question,  What  is  the  natural 
food  of  man  ?  As  an  abstract  truth,  the  maxim  *  of 
the  physiologist  Ilaller  is  absolutely  unimpeachable : 
"  Our  proper  nutriment  should  consist  of  vegetable  and 
semi-animal  substances  which  can  be  eaten  with  relish 
before  their  natural  taste  has  been  disguised  by  artificial 
preparation."  For  even  the  most  approved  modes  of 
grinding,  bolting,  leavening,  cooking,  spicing,  heating,  f 

*  Indorsed  (indirectly)  in  the  writings  of  Drs.  Alcott,  Claude  Bernard, 
Schlemmer,  Hall,  and  Dio  Lewis,  and  directly  by  Schrodt  and  Jules  Virey. 

f  Mr.  Oliphant,  in  his  memoirs  of  Lord  Elgin's  "  Mission  to  China," 
tells  us  that  the  high-caste  mandarins  eat  all  their  food  smoking-hot,  and 
eschew  even  cold  water  and  cold  cocoa-milk,  on  the  ground  that "  monkeys 
are  addicted  to  such  practices,  which  therefore  must  be  injurious  to  a 
human  being." 

This  fallacy,  I  believe,  offers  the  key  to  the  vulgar  prejudice  against 
hygienic  conclusions  based  upon  the  analogies  of  the  animal  kingdom. 
The  anti-natural  doctrines  of  Buddhism  and  Christianity  have  persuaded 
us  that  man  is  an  alter  ens,  a  being  governed  by  laws  opposed  to  those  of 
Nature  in  general,  and  that  arguments  derived  from  the  habits  of  our 
dumb  fellow-creatures  can  not  be  validly  applied  to  the  problems  of 
human  physiology.  "  You  do  not  compare  yourself  to  a  wild  animal,  do 
you  ?  "  is  a  common  objection  to  such  arguments.  Wild  animals  have  to 


32  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

and  freezing  our  food  are,  strictly  speaking,  abuses  of 
our  digestive  organs.  It  is  a  fallacy  to  suppose  that 
hot  spices  aid  the  process  of  digestion :  they  irritate  the 
stomach  and  cause  it  to  discharge  the  ingesta  as  rapidly 
as  possible,  as  it  would  hasten  to  rid  itself  of  tartarized 
antimony  or  any  other  poison ;  but  this  very  precipita- 
tion of  the  gastric  functions  prevents  the  formation  of 
healthy  chyle.  There  is  an  important  difference  be- 
tween rapid  and  thorough  digestion.  In  a  similar  way, 
a  high  temperature  of  our  food  facilitates  deglutition, 
but,  by  dispensing  with  insalivation  and  the  proper  use 
of  our  teeth,  we  make  the  stomach  perform  the  work 
of  our  jaws  and  salivary  glands ;  in  other  words,  we 
make'  our  food  less  digestible.  By  bolting  our  flour 
and  extracting  the  nutritive  principle  of  various  liquids, 
we  fall  into  the  opposite  error :  we  try  to  assist  our  di- 
gestive organs  by  performing  mechanically  a  part  of 
their  proper  and  legitimate  functions.  The  health  of 
the  human  system  can  not  be  maintained  on  concen- 
trated nutriment  ;  even  the  air  we  inhale  contains  azotic 
gases  which  must  be  separated  from  the  life-sustaining 
principle  by  the  action  of  our  respiratory  organs — not 
by  any  inorganic  process.  We  can  not  breathe  pure 
oxygen.  For  analogous  reasons  bran-flour  makes  better 
bread  than  bolted  flour ;  meat  and  saccharine  fruits  are 
healthier  than  meat-extracts  and  pure  glucose.  In  short, 
artificial  extracts  and  compounds  are,  on  the  whole,  less 
wholesome  than  the  palatable  products  of  Nature.  In 

rely  on  the  guidance  of  their  natural  instincts ;  but  those  instincts  teach 
them  to  avoid  poisons,  and  to  cure  their  diseases  without  drugs ;  they 
teach  them  not  to  murder  their  unborn  offspring,  not  to  eat  till  they  are 
hungry,  not  to  starve  in  the  midst  of  plenty,  not  to  choke  for  fear  of  the 
night-air,  not  to  fuddle  with  alcohol  or  opium.  We  are  better  Christians 
and  better  pastry-cooks,  but  in  some  respects  it  would  be  well  for  us  if 
we  had  the  right  to  "  compare  ourselves  to  wild  animals." 


DIET. 


33 


the  case  of  bran -flour  and  certain  fruits  with  a  large 
percentage  of  wholly  innutritions  matter,  chemistry 
fails  to  account  for  this  fact,  but  biology  suggests  the 
mediate  cause  :  the  normal  type  of  our  physical  consti- 
tution dates  from  a  period  when  the  digestive  organs 
of  our  (frugivorous)  ancestors  adapted  themselves  to 
such  food — a  period  compared  with  whose  duration  the 
age  of  grist-mills  and  made  dishes  is  but  of  yesterday. 

We  can  not  doubt  that  the  highest  degree  of  health 
could  only  be  attained  by  strict  conformity  to  nailer's 
rule,  i.  e.,  by  subsisting  exclusively  on  the  pure  and  un- 
changed products  of  Nature.  In  the  tropics  such  a 
mode  of  life  would  not  imply  anything  like  asceticism : 
a  meal  of  milk  and  three  or  four  kinds  of  sweet  nuts, 
fresh  dates,  bananas,  and  grapes  would  not  clash  with 
the  still  higher  rule,  that  eating,  like  every  other  natu- 
ral function,  should  be  a  pleasure  and  not  a  penance. 
Heat  destroys  the  delicate  flavor  of  many  fruits,  and 
makes  others  less  digestible  by  coagulating  their  albu- 
men. But  in  the  frigid  latitudes,  where  we  have  to 
dry  and  garner  many  vegetable  products  in  order  to 
survive  the  unproductive  season,  the  process  of  cooking 
our  food  has  advantages  which  fully  outweigh  such 
objections.  Few  men  with  post-diluvian  teeth  would 
agree  with  Dr.  Schlemmer  that  hard  grain  is  preferable 
to  bread.  No  Bostoner  would  renounce  his  favorite 
dish  for  a  nose-bag  full  of  dry  beans.  Dried  prunes, 
too,  are  improved  by  cooking — in  taste,  at  least,  and 
perhaps  in  digestibility.  Besides,  we  should  not  forget 
that  the  natural  taste  of  such  substances,  before  they 
became  over-dry,  was  agreeable,  or  at  least  not  repulsive 
to  our  palates.*  It  appears  that  on  week-days  the  chil- 

*  In  his  "  Natur-Heilkunde,"  Schrodt  distinguishes  between  natural, 
artificially  adapted,  and  unnatural  or  wholly  injurious  articled  of  food. 


34  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

dren  of  Israel  indulged  their  poor  in  the  practice  of 
snatching  free  luncheons  from  a  convenient  corn-field 
(Matthew  xii,  1),  and  the  Imam  of  Muscat  still  feeds 
his  soldiers  on  crude  wheat  and  dhourra-corn,  a  sort  of 
millet,  which  many  French  soldiers  learned  to  eat  raw, 
as  their  Mameluke  captors  declined  to  cook  it  for  them. 
Even  the  legumes  —  peas,  beans,  and  lentils  —  pass 
through  a  period  when  they  are  soft  and  full  of  sweet 
milk-juice,  though  in  their  sun-dried  over-ripeness  they 
become  as  tough  as  wood.  In  the  scale  of  wholesome- 
ness  the  place  next  to  Haller's  man-food  par  excellence 
should  therefore  be  assigned  to  vegetable  substances 
whose  pleasant  taste  has  been  restored  by  the  process  of 
cooking.  With  this  addition,  even  an  invalid,  dieting 
for  his  health,  need  not  complain  of  lack  of  variety,  for 
the  number  of  nutritious  vegetables  that  can  be  success- 
fully cultivated  as  far  north  as  Hamburg  and  Boston  is 
almost  infinite  if  we  include  the  plants  of  the  corre- 
sponding Asiatic  latitudes  and  those  that  could  be  accli- 
matized in  the  course  of  five  or  six  seasons.  With  five 

*  * 

kinds  of  cereals,  three  legumina,  eight  species  of  escu- 

"  Our  natural  food,"  he  says  (like  Pythagoras),  "  are  such  vegetable  and 
semi-animal  products  as  either  are  or  can  be  eaten  and  relished  raw,  and 
mthout  the  preliminaries  of  cooking  and  spicing.  Such  are  milk,  honey, 
eggs,  nuts,  cereals,  a  few  roots,  legumina,  and  gums,  and  the  countless 
variety  of  fruit,  which  are  man-food  par  excellence.  Our  various  kinds 
of  bread,  though  artificially  prepared,  as  well  as  other  farinaceous  dishes, 
are  derived  from  an  edible  grain  which  is  neither  repulsive  nor  indigesti- 
ble in  its  original  state. 

"  To  the  second  or  adapted  edibles  belong  different  vegetables  which 
are  rendered  palatable  only  by  the  process  of  cooking,  as  cabbage,  beans, 
peas,  and  lentils,  and  various  roots  and  leaves.  Flesh,  also,  I  will  add 
to  this  list,  though  some  would  place  it  in  the  third  class.  Injurious, 
without  a  redeeming  quality,  are  all  narcotic  and  alcoholic  drinks,  and  all 
ardent  spices,  such  as  pepper,  mustard,  and  acid  fluids ;  also  those  partly 
decayed  and  acid  substances  whose  properties  are  more  stimulating  than 
nourishing :  strong  cheese,  sauerkraut,  and  pickles." 


DIET.  .       35 

lent  roots,  ten  or  twelve  nutritive  herbs,  thirty  ta  forty 
varieties  of  tree-fruits,  besides  berries  and  nuts,  a  vege- 
tarian might  emulate  the  Due  de  Polignac,  who  refused 
to  eat  the  same  dish  more  than  once  per  season.  Honey 
is  the  pure,  unchanged,  and  unalloyed  saccharine  juice 
of  flowers  and  resinous  exudations,  and  therefore  strictly 
a  vegetable  substance,  though  Carl  Bock  and  Bichat 
describe  it  as  semi-animal  food,  because  "  derived  from 
animals,"  i.  e.,  hived  by  bees.  They  might  as  well  in- 
clude flour  under  the  same  category  because  horses  carry 
grist  to  the  mill.  Like  sugar,  vanilla,  and  the  manna- 
sirup  of  Arabia  Felix,  we  might  class  it  with  the 
non-stimulating  condiments,  which,  used  in  moderate 
quantities,  impart  an  agreeable  flavor  to  many  fari- 
naceous preparations  without  impairing  their  digesti- 
bility.* 

Of  all  semi-animal  substances,  sweet  fresh  milk  i.s 
the  most  wholesome,  in  itself  an  almost  perfect  aliment, 
welcome  to  all  mammals  and  nearly  all  vertebrate  ani- 
mals. Monkeys,  cats,  deer,  squirrels,  otters,  and  ant- 
bears,  creatures  that  differ  so  widely  in  their  special 
diet,  will  rarely  refuse  a  dish  of  this  universal  food.  I 
have  seen  snakes  and  iguanas  drink  it  with  avidity.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  have  noticed  that  all  animals  but  pigs 
and  starved  dogs  eschew  sour  milk ;  it  is,  properly 
speaking,  fermented  milk,  to  the  taste  of  a  normal  m.ni 
probably  as  repulsive  as  tainted  meat  or  sour  gnu-1. 
This  fermentation  affects  the  fatty  particles  less  than 
the  watery  and  caseine  ;  and  butter  and  cream  (though 
less  digestible  than  fresh  milk)  are,  therefore,  far 

*  Jules  Vircy  estimates  that  four  tenths  of  the  human  race  subsist 
exclusively  on  a  vegetable  diet,  and  that  seven  tenths  are  practically 
(though  not  on  principle)  vegetarians.  Virchow  estimates  the  toUl  num- 
ber at  eighty-five  per  cent. 


36        •  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

healthier  than  sour  whey  and  cheese.  Cheese  in  some 
of  its  forms  is  quite  as  unwholesome  as  rotten  flesh ; 
putrid  curd  would  be  the  right  name  for  Limburger 
and  fromage  de  Brix.  Vegetarians  of  the  Lankester 
school  object  to  milk  and  butter  on  account  of  the  spu- 
rious stuff  that  is  often  foisted  upon  the  market  under 
those  names ;  but  mild-tasted  aliment  scan  hardly  be  adul- 
terated with  very  injurious  substances ;  a  little  tallow, 
oleomargarine,  or  even  lard,  mixed  with  butter,  and  as 
such  again  mixed  with  a  tenfold  quantity  of  farinaceous 
food,  can  only  affect  the  most  delicate  constitutions  to 
any  appreciable  degree,  and  certainly  not  more  than  the 
small  percentage  of  alum  we  often  eat  with  our  daily 
bread.  Comparatively  speaking,  such  things  are  the 
veriest  trifles,  and  we  can  not  afford  to  fight  gnats 
while  we  are  beset  by  a  swarm  of  vampires.  We  have 
dietetic  exquisites  who  would  shudder  at  the  idea  of 
raising  their  biscuits  with  brewer's  yeast  instead  of 
bicarbonate  of  soda,  but  do  not  hesitate  to  sandwich 
that  same  bread  with  strong  cheese  and  pork-sausage  ; 
or  pity  the  wretch  whose  poverty  consents  to  North 
Carolina  apple-jack,  while  they  sip  a  petite  verre  of  aro- 
matic schiedam.  That  kind  of  purism  often  reminds 
me  of  the  fastidiousness  of  Heinrich  Heine's  Mandarin 
convict,  who  insists  on  being  thrashed  with  a  perfumed 
bamboo,  "  but  would  have  been  shocked  at  a  less  fra- 
grant hiding." 

All  kinds  of  fat  ("  non-nitrogenous "  aliments),  in- 
cluding butter  and  cream,  are  more  digestible  in  winter 
than  in  summer  time.  Cold  air  is  a  peptic  stimulant, 
and  neutralizes  the  caldrific  effect  of  a  non-nitrogenous 
diet,  while  fresh  tree-fruits  and  berries  counteract  an 
excess  of  atmospheric  heat,  and  thus,  by  an  admirable 
provision  of  Nature,  the  seasons  themselves  furnish  us 


DIET.  ... 

the  food  most  adapted  to  the  preservation  of  the  right 
medium  temperature  of  the  system.  Preserved  fruits 
(raisins,  dried  figs  and  apples,  etc.)  lose  much  of  their 
acidity,  and  thus  become  less  refreshing,  but  not  less 
nutritive,  at  the  very  time  when  the  ktter  property  is 
the  more  important  one.  Cow's-milk,  on  the  other  ) 
hand,  grows  richer  in  winter-time,  and  this  self-adapta-  / 
tion  of  their  food  to  the  varying  demands  of  the  sear  I 
sons  enables  the  inhabitants  of  such  countries  as  Italy 
and  Mexico  to  subsist  all  the  year  round  on  an  almost 
uniform  diet.  But  in  a  climate  of  such  thermal  ex- 
tremes as  ours  it  would  be  the  best  plan  to  vary  our 
regimen  with  the  weather,  and,  above  all,  to  adopt  a 
special  summer  diet,  since  the  consequences  of  our  pres- 
ent culinary  abuses  are  far  less  baneful  in  January 
than  in  July.  Even  in  mid-winter  our  compounds 
of  steaming  and  greasy  viands  with  hot  spices  severely 
strain  the  tolerance  of  a  youthful  stomach ;  but,  when 
the  dog-star  adds  its  fervid  influence,  the  demand^ for 
refrigerating  food  becomes  so  imperative  that  no  foren- 
sic eloquence  would  persuade  me  to  convict  a  city  lad 
for  hooking  water-melons.  Where  fruit  is  cheap,  the 
paterfamilias  should  keep  a  store-room  full  of  summer 
apples,  and  leave  the  key  in  the  door — it  will  obviate 
costiveness  and  midnight  excursions.  From  May  to 
September  fresh  fruit  ought  to  form  the  staple  of  our 
diet,  and  the  noonday  meal  at  least  should  consist  of 
cold  dishes,  cold  apple-pudding  with  sweet  milk  and 
whipped  eggs,  or  strawberries  with  bread,  cream,  and 
sugar.  The  Romans  of  the  republican  age  broke  their 
fast  with  a  biscuit  and  a  fig  or  two,  and  took  their  prin- 
cipal meal  in  the  cool  of  the  evening.  In  their  appli 
cation  of  the  word,  a  frugal  diet  meant  quite  literally 
a  diet  of  tree-fruits,  and  that  our  primogenitor  was  a 


38  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

frugivorous  creature  is  the  one  point  in  which  the  Dar- 
winian genesis  agrees  with  the  Mosaic  version. 

Cyrus,  King  of  Persia,  according  to  Xenophon,  was 
brought  up  on  a  diet  of  water,  bread,  and  cresses,  till^ 
up  to  his  fifteenth  year,  when  honey  and  raisins  were 
added ;  and  the  family  names  of  the  Fabii  and  Lentuli 
were  derived  from  their  customary  and  possibly  exclu- 
sive diet.  Eggs  and  apples,  with  a  little  bread,  were 
for  centuries  the  alpha  and  omega  of  a  Koman  dinner ; 
and,  in  earlier  times,  even  bread  and  turnips,  if  not 
turnips  alone,  which  the  patriot  Cincinnatus  thought 
sufficient  for  his  wants.  It  is  singular  that  our  temper- 
ance societies  direct  their  efforts  only  against  the  fluid 
part  of  our  vicious  diet ;  a  league  of  temperate  eaters 
would  certainly  find  a  large  field  for  reform.  But  in 
Italy  the  thing  was  attempted  by  Luigi  de  Cornaro,  a 
Venetian  nobleman  of  the  fifteenth  century,  who  re- 
stricted himself  to  a  daily  allowance  of  ten  ounces  of 
solid  food  and  six  ounces  of  wine,  and  prolonged  his 
life  to  one  hundred  and  two  years.  Though  he  did  not 
organize  his  followers  into  a  sect,  his  example  and  his 
voluminous  writings  influenced  the  manners  of  his  coun- 
try for  many  years.  Comaro  would  not  have  gained 
many  converts  in  Kussia  and  Germany ;  but  through- 
out Southern  Europe  frugality,  in  the  truest  old  Latin 
sense,  is  by  no  means  rare.  Lacour,  a  Marseilles  'long- 
shoreman, earned  from  ten  to  twenty  francs  a  day, 
loaned  money  on  interest  and  gave  alms,  but  slept  at 
night  in  his  basket,  and  subsisted  on  fourteen  onions  a 
day,  which  preserved  him  in  excellent  health  and  hu- 
mor, but  got  him  the  nickname  of  quatorze  oignons. 

A  pound  of  bread  with  six  ounces  of  poor  cheese, 
and  such  berries  as  the  road-side  may  offer,  constitute 
the  daily  ration  of  the  Turkish  soldier  on  the  march, 


DIET. 


39 


and  the  followers  of  Don  Carlos  contented  themselves 
with  even  less.  A  correspondent  of  the  "  Daily  News  " 
was  served  with  a  dish  of  radishes  in  a  Catalan  tavern, 
and  ventured  the  remark  that  radishes  were  taken  after 
meals  in  Northern  Europe.  "  Yon  can  get  some  more 
after  finishing  these,"  was  the  reply.  The  radishes 
constituted  the  dinner. 

Not  that  men  should,  but  that  they  caw,  live  on 
bread  alone,  is  abundantly  proved  by  the  records  of 
Old-World  prisons.  Silvio  Pellico,  the  Italian  patriot 
and  martyr,  subsisted  for  seven  years  on  coarse  rye- 
bread  and  water,  which  experience  had  taught  him  to 
prefer  to  the  putrid  pork-soup  of  his  Austrian  bastile. 
The  prisoners  of  the  Khedive  were  fed  on  rice  and  In- 
dian corn,  till  the  prayers  of  the  French  residents  and 
his  American  officers  induced  him  to  sweeten  their  bit- 
ter lot  by  a  weekly  bottle  of  sakarra,  or  diluted  molas- 
ses ;  and  I  learn  from  an  article  in  a  French  journal 
that  some  of  these  unfortunates,  who  had  passed  long 
years  without  any  hint  of  sakarra,  were  forced  by 
chronic  bowel  complaints  to  return  to  their  old  dry  fare. 

Fedor  Darapski,  born  1774  in  Karskod  near  Praga, 
Eastern  Poland,  was  brought  to  the  government  of  Nov- 
gorod in  his  twenty-second  year  as  a  conscript  to  the 
Russian  army,  and  was  soon  after  sentenced  to  death 
for  mutiny  and  assault  with  intent  to  kill.  The  Em- 
press Catharine,  acting  on  a  recommendation  of  the 
Governor  of  Novgorod,  commuted  his  sentence  to  im- 
prisonment for  life,  but  ordered  that  on  every  anni 
sary  of  the  deed  (an  attempt  to  kill  his  colonel)  tin* 
convict  should  receive  forty  lashes  and  be  kept  on  half 
rations  for  a  week  after;  the  full  ration  being  two 
pounds  of  black  bread  and  a  jug  of  cold  water. 
these  terms  Darapski  was  boarded  at  the  fortress  of 


40  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Kirilov  till  1863,  when  at  the  approach  of  his  ninetieth 
birthday  he  was  again  recommended  to  niercvT  and 
liberated  by  order  of  the  late  Czar. 

Even  the  story  of  Nebuchadnezzar  may  be  more 
than  an  allegory,  as  the  wild  berries,  roots,  and  grass- 
seeds  of  the  Assyrian  valleys  contained  surely  as  much 
nourishment  as  sour  rye-bread ;  and  who  knows  but 
grass  itself  might  do  for  a  while,  since  the  Slavonian 
peasants  often  subsist  for  weeks  at  a  time  on  sauerkraut 
and  cabbage-soup  ? 

Corsican  farmers  live  all  winter  on  dried  fruit  and 
polenta  (chestnut-meal),  and  the  Moors  of  mediaeval 
Spain  used  to  provision  their  fortified  cities  with  chest- 
nuts and  olive-oil.  During  the  siege  of  Lucknow  the 
native  soldiers  asked  that  the  little  rice  left  be  given  to 
their  British  comrades ;  as  for  themselves,  they  could 
do  with  the  soup,  i.  e.,  the  water  in  which  the  rice  had 
been  boiled ! 

But  the  ne  plus  ultra  of  abstinence  combined  with 
robust  strength  is  furnished  in  the  record  of  Shamyl, 
the  heroic  Circassian,  who  for  the  last  two  years  of  the 
war  that  ended  with  his  capture  had  nothing  but  water 
for  his  drink  and  roasted  beechnuts  for  his  food,  and 
yet  month  after  month  defied  the  power  of  the  Rus- 
sian Empire  in  his  native  mountains,  and  repeatedly 
cut  his  way  through  the  ranks  of  his  would-be  captors 
with  the  arm  of  a  Hercules. 

The  philosophers  of  antiquity  prided  themselves  on 
their  frugal  habits,  which  ranked  next  to  godliness  in 
their  estimation,  as  expressed  in  the  famous  aphorism, 
"  God  needs  nothing,  and  he  is  next  to  him  who  can 
do  with  next  to  nothing  " — whose  material  needs  are 
the  smallest.  Primitive  habits  are  certainly  favorable 
^independence,  especially  in  a  genial  climate,  where  a 


DIET.  41 

man  is  above  the  fear  of  tyranny  and  all  social  obliga- 
tions, who  like  Shamyl  can  subsist  on  the  spontaneous 
gifts  of  his  mother  Earth.  "Do  you  know,"  Cyrus 
asked  the  embassador  of  a  luxurious  potentate,  "  how 
invincible  men  are  who  can  live  on  herbs  and  acorns?" 
If  the  Saracens  had  persisted  in  the  simplicity  of  their 
fathers,  the  nineteenth  century  might  see  Moorish  king- 
doms in  Southern  Europe,  and  Arabian  science  and 
fruit-gardens  in  the  place  of  deserts  and  monkish  be- 
sottedness.  Cato  needed  no  prophetic  inspiration  to 
predict  the  downfall  of  a  city  where  a  small  fish  could 
fetch  a  higher  price  than  a  fattened  ox. 

Lycurgus,  the  Spartan,  makes  the  diet  of  his  coun- 
trymen the  subject  of  careful  legislation,  but  seems  to 
have  feared  excesses  in  quality  rather  than  in  quantity ; 
as  long  as  the  black  soup  and  other  national  dishes 
remained  orthodox  in  regard  to  the  prescribed  simple 
ingredients,  free  indulgence  of  the  most  exacting  ap- 
petites was  not  only  permitted  but  encouraged.    At 
the  philosophic  reunions  of  the  Lyceum  the  bill  of  fare 
permitted  a  choice  between  dried  figs  and  honey-water 
in  addition  to  the  wheat-bread,  which  could  not  be  re- 
fused, and  Greece  was  the  model  of  early  Roman  insti- 
tutions  in  this  as  well  as  in  other  respects.     Fruit  and 
bread-cakes,  spiced  with  Attic  salt  and  music,  enter- 
tained the  friends  of  Plato  at  those  suppers  of  the  gods  ^ 
of  three  or  four  hours,  which  Aristotle  preferred.to.'so  •.•;/•.   '^ 
many  years  on  the  throne  of  Persia ;  but  the^vejcy/ncxt  • '.  •.'•".•'.: 
generation  witnessed  the  drunken  riots  of  Babylon,*  and/ 
the  general  introduction  of  Persian  manner^ anjl*  liwy/l.  ' 

uries.  ••'••..  •*         ."•'•"   ••'.'.'• 

The  ancients  undoubtedly  were  our*  {superiors  in,.  ••  '.' 
hygienic  insight,  but  among  the  many  judicwp  • 
tions  of  their  dietary  regimens  there  are  «empChat  we  V.  : 


42  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

must  attribute  to  prejudice  or  leave  utterly  unaccounted 
for.  The  Mosaic  interdiction  of  rabbit-flesh,  wild  swan, 
and  finless  fishes  has  been  very  learnedly  explained  as 
a  necessary  consequence  of  general  laws,  which  had 
to  include  those  animals  for  the  sake  of  consistency ; 
but  what  on  earth  or  below  earth  could  induce  Pythag- 
oras, the  great  philosopher,  to  prohibit  the  use  of  beans 
— nay,  even  denounce  any  contact  with  the  shell,  the 
leaves,  or  the  roots  of  the  poor  plant  as  a  dreadful  pol- 
lution ?  Such  was  the  stigma  he  had  attached  to  the 
violation  of  this  rule,  we  are  told,  that  a  body  of  sol- 
diers from  Magna  Grsecia,  who  all  belonged  to  the 
Pythagorean  sect,  permitted  themselves  to  be  cut  to 
pieces  or  captured  rather  than  save  themselves  by  cross- 
ing a  bean-field ! 

The  old  proverb  de  gustibus  can  hardly  prevent 
astonishment  at  the  diversity  of  tastes.  What  would 
Pythagoras  have  said  about  our  national  dish  of  pork 
and  beans,  or  what  shall  we  say  to  explain  the  Japanese 
prejudice  against  milk,  the  Papuan's  partiality  for  fat 
white  caterpillars,  or  the  gliraria  that  were  attached  to 
every  decent  household  of  imperial  Rome  ?  Athenseus 
describes  a  glirarium  as  a  large  brick  structure,  divided 
by  wire  partitions  into  small  cells,  from  five  hundred 
to  two  thousand  of  them ;  every  cell  the  receptacle  of  a 
captive  rat,  which  was  fattened  on  husks,  rotten  fish, 
<and  other  offal,  till  a  further  increase  in  bulk  would 
make 'it:  difficult  to  extract  the  animal  through  the  nar- 
row door  of  its  cage.  The  perfect  specimens  were  then 
collected,  stuffed  with  crushed,  figs,  and  served  in  a 
sauce  of  olive-oil  at  "the  banquets  of  wealthy  patriots 
who  prefeiTfcd  domestic  delicacies  to  colonial  imports. 
The  Digger  Indians  of  our  Pacific  slope  rejoiced  in  the 
•  great  locust-swarms  of  1875  as  a  gracious  dispensation 


DIET.  43 

of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  laid  in  a  store  of  dried  locust- 
powder  for  years  to  come.  Even  mineral  substances 
and  strong  mineral  poisons  have  their  votaries.  Mithri- 
dates,  King  of  Pontus,  could  take  a  large  dose  of  arsenic 
with  impunity,  and  the  mountaineers  of  Savoy  and 
Southern  Switzerland  use  arsenic  habitually  as  a  safe- 
guard against  pulmonic  affections.  The  poor  Norse- 
men often  mix  their  daily  bread  with  a  whitish  mineral 
powder,  more  from  necessity  than  a  vitiated  taste,  we 
hope ;  but  a  similar  substance  is  employed  by  the  na- 
tives of  Brazil  and  other  parts  of  tropical  America 
without  any  such  excuse.  The  name  of  Panama  is  de- 
rived from  panamante  (originally  pan-de-monte,  mount- 
ain-bread), a  substance  which  the  Indians  of  Central 
America  prepared  from  a  mealy  gypsum  powder,  found 
here  and  there  in  the  Sierra.  Ilumboldt  describes  a 
tribe  of  Indians  in  Northern  Brazil  who  have  been  ad- 
dicted to  the  use  of  panamante  for  generations,  and 
were  distinguished  by  a  monstrous  protuberance  and 
induration  of  the  upper  abdomen.  When  the  French 
were  masters  of  St.  Domingo  their  negro"  slaves  had 
contracted  a  similar  passion,  and  could  only  be  re- 
strained by  barbarous  punishments  from  indulging  it 
to  excess. 

It  would  be  erroneous  to  suppose  that  cannibalism 
has  become  quite  extinct.     Among  the  Dyaks  of  Bor- 
neo there  is  a  recurrence  of  the  outrage  after  every 
petty  feud  and  raid,  and  many  of  the  South-Sea  Islands 
are  still  infested  with  secret  anthropophagi.     The  Pin- 
tos,  an  aboriginal  tribe  of  Yucatan,  have  repeatedly  1 
detected  in  cannibal  practices;  and  phenomenal  cases 
have  occurred  in  Asia  after  every  protracted  famine. 
In  1873  the  Chasseurs  d'Afrique  captured  an  old 
byle  on  the  plateau  of  Sidi-Belbez  (Algiers),  who  had 


4-4:  PHYSICAL   EDUCATION. 

committed  innumerable  murders  to  indulge  this  horri- 
ble passion,  and  had*twice  been  caught  inflagrante  by 
his  countrymen,  who  contented  themselves  with  giving 
him  a  good  hiding  the  first  time,  and  released  him  on 
another  occasion  when  they  found  his  victim  had  only 
been  a  French  settler ! 

.  The  slaughter-houses  of  every  large  city  are  visited 
by  delicate  ladies,  who  hope  to  cure  affections  of  the 
respiratory  organs  by  a  draught  of  fresh  blood,  but  who 
would  inspire  a  Hindoo  with  a  cannibal  terror  more  in- 
tense than  that  produced  in  the  Algerian  settlements 
by  the  above  Kabyle.  Herodotus  relates  that  the  Scyth- 
ians executed  their  criminals  by  a  potion  of  fresh  ox- 
blood,  and  recommends  this  as  a  more  humane  method 
than  capital  punishment  by  the  sword,  though  inferior 
to  the  hemlock-cup.  "  For  opening  the  gates  of  Tar- 
tarus," says  Haller,  "  there  is  nothing  like  a  good  nar- 
cotic. If  I  should  have  occasion  to  leave  this  world,  I 
would  no  more  think  of  shooting  myself  than  of  leaving 
town  by  being  fired  from  a  mortar,  when  I  could  take 
the  stage-coach." 

The  Turks  shudder  at  seeing  a  Frank  swallow  oys- 
ters, and  even  in  the  cities  of  Europe  and  North  America 
we  find  individuals  with  similar  antipathies ;  and  I  know 
an  old  professor  who  passed  half  a  century  in  St.  Pe 
tersburg,  and  suffered  grievously  from  an  unconquera- 
ble aversion  to  caviare.  Caviare  is  the  salted  or  pickled 
roe  of  the  sturgeon — not  quite  so  bad  as  Schnepfen- 
dreck,  a  North  German  delicacy,  which  consists  chiefly 
of  the  faeces  of  the  common  woodcock. 

Professor  H.  Letheby,  food-analyst  for  the  city  of 
London,  is  responsible  for  the  following  account  of  a 
mandarin's  dinner,  given  to  an  English  party  and  some 
distinguished  natives  of  Hong-Kong : 


DIET.  45 

"  The  dinner  began  with  hot  wine,  made  from  rice, 
and  sweet  biscuits  of  buckwheat.  Then  followed  the 
first  course  of  custards,  preserved  rice,  fruits,  salted 
earth-worms,  smoked  fish  and  ham,  Japan  leather  (?)  and 
pigeons'  eggs,  having  the  shells  softened  by  vinegar; 
all  of  which  was  cold.  After  this  came  sharks'  fins, 
birds'  nests,  deer-sinews,  and  other  dishes  of  an  appe- 
tizing and  dainty  character.  They  were  succeeded  by 
more  solid  foods,  as  rice  and  curry,  chopped  bears'  paws, 
mutton  and  beef  cut  into  small  cubes  and  floating  in 
gravy ;  pork  in  various  forms,  the  flesh  of  puppies  and 
cats  boiled  in  buffalo's  milk ;  shantung  or  white  cab- 
bage and  sweet-potatoes ;  fowls  split  open,  flattened  and 
grilled,  their  livers  floating  in  hot  oil,  and  cooked  eggs 
of  various  descriptions,  containing  embryo  birds.  But 
the  surprise  of  the  entertainment  was  yet  to  come.  On 
the  removal  of  some  of  the  flower-vases  a  large  covered 
dish  was  placed  in  the  center  of  the  table,  and  at  a  sig- 
nal the  cover  was  removed.  The  hospitable  board  im- 
mediately swarmed  with  juvenile  crabs,  who  made  thi'ir 
exodus  from  the  vessel  with  surprising  agility,  for  the 
crablets  had  been  thrown  into  vinegar  before  the  guests 
sat  down,  and  this  made  them  sprightly  in  their  move- 
ments; but,  fast  as  they  ran,  they  were  quickly  sr' 
by  the  nearest  guests,  who  thrust  them  into  their  mouths 
and  crushed  them  without  ceremony,  swallowing  the 
strange  gelatinous  morsel  with  evident  gusto.  After 
this,  soy  was  handed  round,  which  is  a  liquor  made  from 
a  Japan  bean,  and  is  intended  to  revive  the  jaded  pal- 
ate. Various  kinds  of  shell  and  fresh  fish  followed, 
succeeded  by  several  thin  broths.  The  banquet  was 
concluded  by  the  costly  bird'*  nest  soup,  the  dessert 
being  a  variety  of  scorched  seeds  and  nuts,  with  sundry 
hot  wines  and  tea." 


46  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

But  the  mandarin  was  astonished  in  his  turn  by 
finding  ice-cream  among  the  delicacies  of  an  English 
refreshment-table,  and  predicted  disastrous  consequences 
from  its  habitual  use.  Ice,  without  doubt,  is  injurious, 
but  not  more  unnatural  than  our  custom  of  swallowing 
boiling-hot  soups  and  stews. 

Dr.  Alcott  holds  that  a  man  might  live  and  thrive  on 
an  exclusive  diet  of  well-selected  fruits,  and  I  agree 
with  him  if  he  includes  olives  and  oily  nuts,  for  no 
assumption  in  dietetics  is  more  gratuitous  than  the 
idea  that  a  frequent  use  of  flesh-food  is  indispensable 
to  the  preservation  of  human  health.  Meat  is  cer- 
tainly not  our  natural  food.  The  structure  of  our 
teeth,  our  digestive  apparatus,  and  our  hands,  proves 
a  priori  that  the  physical  organization  of  man  is  that 
of  a  frugivorous  animal.  So  do  our  instincts.  Accus- 
tom a  child  to  a  diet  of  milk,  bread,  and  meat ;  never 
let  him  see  a  fruit,  nor  mention  the  existence  of  such  a 
thing  ;  then  take  him  to  an  orchard,  and  see  how  quick- 
ly his  instinct  will  tell  him  what  apples  are  good  for. 
Turn  him  loose  among  a  herd  of  lambs  and  kids ;  he 
will  play  with  them  as  a  fellow-vegetarian.  In  a 
slaughter-house  the  sight  of  gory  carcasses  and  puddles 
of  blood  will  excite  him  with  a  horror  naturalis.  The 
same  sight  would  excite  the  appetite  of  the  omnivorous 
pig  as  well  as  of  the  carnivorous  puppy.  Artificial 
preparation,  spices,  etc.,  may  disguise  the  natural  taste 
of  meat,  as  of  coffee  or  wine,  but  they  will  not  alter 
its  effect  upon  the  animal  system.  The.  flesh-food  fal- 
lacy, like  other  errors  of  the  civilized  nations,  has  found 
plausible  defenders,  but  their  principal  argument  is 
clearly  based  on  a  misunderstood  fact.  The  delusion 
originated  in  England,  where  the  physique  of  the  beef- 
fed  and  rubicund  Saxon  squire  contrasts  strongly  with 


DIET.  47 

that  of  the  potato-fed  Celtic  laborer.  What  this  really 
proves  is  merely  that  a  mixed  diet  is  superior  to  a  diet 
of  starch  and  water,  for  the  North  Irish  dairyman,  who 
adds  milk  and  butter  to  his  starch,  outweighs  and  out- 
lives the  rubicund  squire.  The  matter  is  this :  in  a  cold 
climate  we  can  not  thrive  without  a  modicum  of  fat,  but 
that  fat  need  not  come  from  slaughtered  animals.  In  a 
colder  country  than  England,  the  East-Russian  peasant, 
remarkable  for  his  robust  health  and  longevity,  subsists 
on  cabbage-soup,  rye  bread,  and  vegetable  oils.  In  a 
colder  country  than  England,  the  Gothenburg  shepherds 
live  chiefly  on  milk,  barley,  bread,  and  esculent  roots. 
The  strongest  men  of  the  three  manliest  races  of  the 
present  world  are  non-carnivorous  :  the  Turanian  moun- 
taineers of  Daghestan  and  Lesghia,  the  Mandingo  tribes 
of  Senegambia,  and  the  Schleswig-Holstein  Bauern,  who 
furnish  the  heaviest  cuirassiers  for  the  Prussian  army 
and  the  ablest  seamen  for  the  Hamburg  navy.  Nor  is 
it  true  that  flesh  is  an  indispensable,  or  even  the  best, 
brain-food.  Pythagoras,  Plato,  Seneca,  Paracelsus, 
Spinoza,  Peter  Bayle,  and  Shelley,  were  vegetarians ; 
so  were  Franklin  and  Lord  Byron  in  their  best  years. 
Newton,  while  engaged  in  writing  his  "  Principia " 
and  "  Quadrature  of  Curves,"  abstained  entirely  from 
animal  food,  which  he  had  found  by  experience  to  be 
unpropitious  to  severe  mental  application.  The  ablest 
modern  physiologists  incline  to  the  same  opinion.  "  I 
use  animal  food  because  I  have  not  the  opportunity 
to  choose  my  diet,"  says  Professor  "Welch,  of  Yale ; 
"  but,  whenever  I  have  abstained  from  it,  I  have  found 
my  health  mentally,  morally,  and  physically  better." 

Though  a  vegetarian  on  principle,  I  have  eaten 
various  kinds  of  flesh  as  a  physiological  experiment, 
and  have  often  observed  the  influence  of  animal  food 


48  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

upon  children  and  invalids,  and  I  have  found  that  a 
pound  of  boiled  beef  or  eight  ounces  of  lean  pork,  after 
a  month's  abstinence  from  all  flesh-food,  will  infallibly 
produce  some  or  all  of  the  following  unmistakable? 
effects :  a  gastric  uneasiness,  akin  to  the  incipient 
operation  of  certain  emetics;  distressing  dreams,  rest- 
lessness, and  a  peculiar  mood  which  I  might  describe 
as  a  promiscuous  pessimism,  a  feeling  of  general  irri- 
tation and  resentment.  I  have  also  noticed  that  flesh- 
food  tends  to  check  intellectual  activity,  not  so  much 
by  making  us  averse  to  all  mental  occupations  as  by 
muddling  what  phrenologists  call  the  perceptives.  By 
its  continued  use  children  gradually  lose  their  native 
brightness  as  well  as  their  amiable  temper. 

But  the  same  observations  oblige  me  to  say  that  its 
deleterious  physical  effects  have  often  been  considera- 
bly overrated.  The  gastric  uneasiness,  even  after  a 
hearty  meal  of  meat  (fat  pork,  perhaps,  excepted), 
yields  readily  to  exercise  in  open  air.  Meat  does  not 
interfere  with  the  digestion  of  other  food,  and,  above 
all,  it  produces  no  ruinous  after-effects;  its  frequent 
use  rarely  becomes  a  morbid  necessity.  Besides,  flesh 
undoubtedly  contains  many  nutritive  elements,  though 
in  a  less  desirable  form  than  we  might  find  them  in 
vegetable  substances.  By  dint  of  practice  the  system 
can  be  got  to  accept  part  of  its  nutriment  in  that  form, 
and  if  we  are  reduced  to  the  choice  of  starving  on 
starch  and  watery  herbs,  or  getting  fat  in  an  abnormal 
way,  the  latter  is  clearly  the  preferable  alternative. 
As  a  rule,  though,  children  during  their  school  years 
had  better  stick  to  dairy  products,  farinaceous  prepara- 
tions, and  fruit ;  hot-headed  boys,  especially,  can  be 
more  effectually  cured  with  cow's-milk  than  with  a 
cow-hide. 


DIET.  49 

The  objections  to  flesh-food,  however,  do  not  apply 
to  eggs,  and  not  in  the  same  degree  to  mollusks  and 
crustaceans.  On  the  banks  of  the  Essequibo,  in  Eastern 
Yenezuela,  I  have  seen  troops  of  capuchin  monkeys 
(Cebus paniscus)  engaged  in  catching  crabs,  though  in 
captivity  those  same  relatives  of  ours  would  rather 
starve  than  touch  a  piece  of  beef.  The  dog-headed 
baboon  visits  the  sea-shore  in  search  of  mollusks,  and 
the  South  American  marmoset,  like  John  the  Baptist, 
delights  in  grasshoppers  and  wild  honey,  though  other- 
wise a  strict  vegetarian.  The  mediaeval  distinction 
between  flesh  and  fish  is  not  wholly  gratuitous,  either ; 
carp,  trout,  and  their  congeners  are,  happily,  almost  as 
digestible  as  potatoes,  for  it  would  be  a  hopeless  under- 
taking to  dissuade  a  young  Walton  from  boiling  and 
devouring  his  first  string  of  perch.  On  journeys,  espe- 
cially in  cold  weather,  children  may  be  occasionally 
indulged  in  such  way-side  delicacies  as  codfish-balls, 
oiled  sardines,  and  ham-sandwiches. 

But,  under  all  circumstances,  make  a  firm  stand 
against  the  POISON-HABIT.  It  is  best  to  call  things  by 
their  right  names.  The  effect  upon  the  animal  econ- 
omy of  every  stimulant  is  strictly  that  of  a  poison,  and 
every  poison  may  become  a  stimulant.  There  is  no 
bane  in  the  South  American  swamps,  no  virulent  com- 
pound in  the  North  American  drug-stores — chemistry 
knows  no  deadliest  poison — whose  gradual  and  persist- 
ent obtrusion  on  the  human  organism  will  not  create 
an  unnatural  craving  after  a  repetition  of  the  lethal 
dose,  a  morbid  appetency  in  every  way  analogous  to 
the  hankering  of  the  toper  after  his  favorite  tipple. 
Swallow  a  tablespoonful  of  laudanum  or  a  few  grains 
of  arsenious  acid  every  night:  at  first  your  physical 
conscience  protests  by  every  means  in  its  power;  uau- 
8 


50  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

sea,  gripes,  gastric  spasms,  and  nervous  headaches  warn 
you  again  and  again;  the  struggle  of  the  digestive 
organs  against  the  fell  intruder  convulses  your  whole 
system.  But  you  continue  the  dose,  and  Nature,  true 
to  her  highest  law  to  preserve  life  at  any  price,  finally 
adapts  herself  to  an  abnormal  condition — adapts  your 
system  to  the  poison  at  whatever  cost  to  health,  strength, 
and  happiness.  Your  body  becomes  an  opium-machine, 
an  arsenic-mill,  a  physiological  engine  moved  by  poison, 
and  performing  its  vital  functions  only  under  the  spur 
of  the  unnatural  stimulus.  But  by-and-by  the  jaded 
system  fails  to  respond  to  the  spur,  your  strength  gives 
way,  and,  alarmed  at  the  symptoms  of  rapid  deliquium, 
you  resolve  to  remedy  the  evil  by  removing  the  cause. 
You  try  to  renounce  stimulation,  and  rely  once  more 
on  the  unaided  strength  of  the  vis  mice.  But  that 
strength  is  almost  exhausted.  The  oil  that  should  have 
fed  the  flame  of  life  has  been  wasted  on  a  health- 
consuming  fire.  Before  you  can  regain  strength  and 
happiness,  your  system  must  readapt  itself  to  the  nor- 
mal condition,  and  the  difficulty  of  that  rearrangement 
will  be  proportioned  to  the  degree  of  the  present  disar- 
rangement; the  further  you  have  strayed  from  Na- 
ture, the  longer  it  will  take  you  to  retrace  your  steps. 
Still,  it  is  always  the  best  plan  to  make  your  way  back 
somehow  or  other,  for,  if  you  resign  yourself  to  your 
fate,  it  will  soon  confront  you  with  another  and  greater 
difficulty.  Before  long  the  poison-fiend  will  demand  a 
larger  fee ;  you  have  to  increase  the  dose.  The  "  de- 
lightful and  exhilarating  stimulant "  has  palled,  the 
quantum  has  now  to  be  doubled  to  pay  the  blue-devils 
off,  and  to  the  majority  of  their  distracted  victims  that 
seems  the  best,  because  the  shortest,  road  to  peace. , 
Kestimulation  really  seems  to  alleviate  the  effects  of  the 


DIET. 


51 


poison-habit  for  a  time.  The  anguish  always  returns, 
and  always  with  increased  strength,  as  a  fire,  smothered 
for  a  moment  with  fuel,  will  soon  break  forth  again 
with  a  fiercer  flame. 

By  these  symptoms  the  disease  of  the  poison-habit 
may  be  identified  in  all  its  disguises,  for  the  self-decep- 
tion of  the  poor  lady  who  seeks  relief  in  a  cup  of  the 
same  strong  tea  that  has  caused  her  sick-headache  is 
absolutely  analogous  to  that  of  the  pot-house  sot  who 
hopes  to  drown  his  care  in  the  source  of  all  his  misery, 
or  of  the  frenzied  opium-eater  who  tries  to  exorcise  a 
legion  of  fiends  with  the  aid  of  Beelzebub.  There  are 
few  accessible  poisons  which  are  not  somewhere  abused 
for  the  purpose  of  intoxication  :  the  Guatemala  Indians 
fuddle  with  hemlock-sap,  the  Peruvians  with  coca,  the 
Tartars  with  fermented  mare's  milk,  the  Algerians  with 
hasheesh ;  but,  wherever  men  have  dealings  witli  the 
"  fiend  that  steals  away  their  brains,"  there  are  always 
Ancient  lagos  who  mistake  him  for  a  "good  familiar 
creature,"  till  he  steals  their  health  and  wealth  as  wrll 
as  their  wits.  Their  woes  are  not  the  penalty  of  their 
persistent  blindness,  but  of  their  first  open-eyed  trans- 
gression. There  is  a  Spanish  proverb  to  the  effect  that 
it  is  easier  to  keep  the  devil  out  than  to  turn  him  out, 
and  many  dupes  of  the  Good  Familiar  would  actually 
think  it  an  ingratitude  to  turn  him  off ;  but  they  should 
have  known  better  than  to  admit  him  when  he  presented 
himself  with  horns  and  claws.  To  a  normal  taste  every 
poison  is  abhorrent,  and  with  the  rarest  exceptions  the 
degree  of  the  repulsiveness  is  proportioned  to  that  of 
the  virulence.  In  the  mouth  of  a  healthy  child,  nun  H 
a  liquid  fire;  beer,  an  emetic;  tea  and  coffee,  !•!• 
decoctions;  tobacco-fumes  revolt  the  stomach  of  tin- 
non-habitue.  Only  blind  deference  to  the  example  of 


52  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

his  elders  will  induce  a  boy  to  accustom  himself  to  such 
abominations  ;  if  he  were  left  to  the  guidance  of  his 
natural  instincts,  intoxication  would  be  anything  but  an 
insidious  vice. 

With  all  its  ramifications,  the  poison-habit  is  a  upas- 
tree  which  has  polluted  the  well-springs  and  tainted  the 
very  atmosphere  of  our  social  life.  The  woe  which  the 
human  race  owes  to  alcohol  alone  is  so  far  beyond  de- 
scription that  I  will  here  only  record  my  belief  that  its 
total  interdiction  will  form  the  first  commandment  in 
the  decalogue  of  the  future.  The  power  of  prejudice 
has  its  limits.  ~No  man,  possessed  of  a  vestige  of  com- 
mon-sense, can  read  the  scientific  literature  that  has 
accumulated  upon  the  subject,  and  doubt  that  even  the 
moderate  use  of  distilled  liquors  as  a  beverage  amply 
justifies  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  unqualified  evils. 
The  effects  of  tea  and  coffee  drinking  are  also  well 
understood,  but  I  must  call  attention  to  an  often  over- 
looked though  most  important  feature  of  the  habit — its 
progressiveness.  The  original  moderate  quantum  soon 
palls,  and  it  is  this  craving  of  the  system  for  the  same 
degree  of  stimulation  which  leads  us  to  Johnsonian  ex- 
cesses or  to  the  adoption  of  a  stronger  stimulant.  Men 
generally  prefer  the  latter  alternative.  Coffee,  tea,  and 
tobacco  pave  the  way  to  opium  in  the  East  and  to  alco- 
hol in  the  West.  The  same  holds  true  of  pungent 
spices.  Pepper  and  mustard  form  the  vanguard  of  the 
poison-fiend.  They  inflame  the  liver,  produce  a  morbid 
irritability  of  the  stomach,  cause  numerous  functional 
derangements  by  impeding  the  process  of  assimilation, 
and  thus  become  auxiliary  in  expediting  the  develop- 
ment of  the  poison-habit.  Whatever  irritates  the  diges- 
tive organs  or  unusually  exhausts  the  vital  forces  tends 
to  the  same  effect.  Besides,  they  blunt  the  susceptibil- 


DIET.  53 

ity  of  the  gustatory  nerves,  and  thus  diminish  our  enjoy- 
ment of  the  simple  viands  that  should  form  our  daily 
food.  In  trying  to  heighten  that  enjoyment,  the  sur- 
feited gastronome  defeats  his  own  purpose :  all  sweet- 
meats pall ;  the  most  appetizing  dishes  he  values  only 
as  a  foil  to  his  caustic  condiments,  like  the  Austrian 
peddler  who  trudges  through  the  flower-leas  of  the  Al- 
penland  in  a  cloud  of  nicotine,  and  to  whom  the  divine 
afflatus  of  the  morning  wind  is  only  so  much  draught 
for  his  tobacco-pipe. 

With  a  single  and  not  quite  explained  exception, 
man  is  the  only  animal  that  resorts  to  stimulation :  a 
few  ruminant  mammals — cows,  sheep,  and  deer — pay 
an  occasional  visit  to  the  next  salt-lick.  The  carnivora 
digest  their  meat  without  salt ;  our  next  relatives,  the 
frugivorous  four-handers,  detest  it.  Not  one  of  the 
countless  tomes,  cordials,  stimulants,  pickles,  and  spices, 
which  have  become  household  necessities  of  modern 
civilization,  is  ever  touched  by  animals  in  a  state  of 
nature.  A  famished  wolf  would  shrink  from  a  "  deviled 
gizzard."  To  children  and  frugivorous  animals  our 
pickles  and  pepper  sauces  are,  on  the  whole,  more  offen- 
sive than  meat,  and  therefore  probably  more  injurious. 
To  savages,  too.  In  the  summer  of  1875  I  stood  one 
evening  near  the  quartermaster's  office  at  Fort  Wingate, 
New  Mexico,  when  two  Kiowa  Indians  applied  for  per- 
mission to  water  their  famished  horses  at  the  govern- 
ment cistern,  offering  to  accept  that  boon  in  part  \r.\\- 
ment  of  a  load  of  brushwood  which  they  proposed  to 
haul  from  the  neighboring  chaparral.  The  fellows 
looked  thirsty  and  hungry  themselves,  and,  while  tin- 
quartermaster  ratified  the  wood-bargain,  one  of  the  offi- 
cers sent  to  his  company  quarters  for  a  lunch  of  such 
comestibles  as  the  cooks  might  have  on  hand  at  that 


54  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

time  of  the  day.  A  trayful  of  "  government  grub " 
was  deposited  on  the  adjacent  cord-wood  platform,  and 
the  Indios  pitched  in  with  the  peculiar  appetite  of  car- 
nivorous nomads.  A  yard  of  commissary  sausage  was 
accepted  as  a  tough  variety  of  jerked  beef  ;  yeasted  and 
branless  bread  disappeared  in  quantities  that  would  have 
confirmed  Dr.  Graham's  belief  in  natural  depravity ; 
they  sipped  the  cold  coffee  and  eyed  it  with  a  gleam  of 
suspicion,  but  were  reconciled  by  the  discovery  of  the 
saccharine  sediment,  and  the  cook  was  just  going  to  re- 
plenish their  cups  when  the  senior  Kiowa  helped  him- 
self to  a  vinegar  pickle,  which  he  probably  mistook  for 
some  sort  of  an  off-color  sugar-plum.  He  tasted  it,  rose 
to  his  feet,  and  dashed  the  plate  down  with  a  muttered 
execration,  and  then  clutched  the  prop  of  the  platform 
to  master  his  rising  fury.  Explanations  followed,  and  a 
pound  of  brown  sugar  was  accepted  as  a  peace-offering ; 
but  the  children  of  Nature  left  the  post  under  the  im- 
pression that  they  had  been  the  victims  of  a  heartless 
practical  joke.  "  D — n  their  breechless  souls,  they  don't 
know  what's  good  for  them  !  "  was  the  cook's  comment, 
which  I  should  indorse  if  his  guests  had  been  in  need 
of  a  blister.  A  slice  of  peppered  and  allspiced  vinegar 
pickle  will  blister  your  skin  as  quick  as  a  plaster  of 
Spanish  flies.  The  lady-friends  of  Dio  Lewis  have 
promised  us  an  "  Art  of  Cookery  for  Total  Abstainers," 
and,  if  the  book  should  correspond  to  the  title,  I  would 
suggest  a  motto :  "  No  spice  but  hunger  ;  no  stimulant 
but  exercise." 

In  the  use  of  hot  spices  the  Spaniards  and  their 
South  American  kinsmen  exceed  every  other  nation. 
Chile  Colorado,  or  red  pepper,  is  one  of  the  mildest 
condiments  of  a  Peruvian  kitchen.  The  yerba  Hanca, 
a  whitish-green  herb  which  is  used  raw  with  olive-oil  on 


DIET.  55 

sandwiches,  and  enters  into  the  composition  of  various 
ragouts,  is  described  as  resembling  the  lapis  inf  emails 
in  its  effect  on  a  normal  tongue.  A  Mexican  can  chew 
up  a  handful  of  red  pepper  as  we  would  so  much  dried 
fruit,  and  eats  onions,  garlic,  and  salted  radishes  as  a 
relief  from  more  pungent  tastes.  I  must  believe  it,  on 
the  testimony  of  the  entire  medical  faculty  of  the  city 
of  Bremen,  that  a  man  who  was  treated  in  their  city 
hospital  for  a  most  mysterious  complaint  settled  the  dis- 
'pute  of  his  physicians  by  confessing  a  weakness  for  tan- 
water — the  fiery  infusion  of  tan-bark,  in  which  he  had 
indulged  rather  to  excess  in  the  last  year.  The  inhabit" 
ants  of  Southern  Russia,  especially  of  the  Dnieper  Delta, 
are  all  day  long  chewing  the  aromatic  seeds  of  the  sun- 
flower and  different  kinds  of  pumpkin-seeds,  which  ap- 
pears to  be  less  a  stimulation  than  an  idle  habit,  like 
the  use  of  chewing-gum  in  our  boarding-schools. 

Timour  the  Tartar  celebrated  his  victories  by  solemn 
barbecues  of  broiled  horse-flesh  and  fermented  mare's 
milk,  or  koumiss,  which  is  still  a  favorite  drink  of  his 
countrymen.  Tartars  also  use  a  decoction  of  the  poi- 
sonous fly-sponge  as  a  stimulating  beverage,  and  accord- 
ing to  Yambery  have  a  national  fqible  for  morsels  of 
superannuated  meat,  of  an  aroma  which  the  French 
term  of  haut-gout  would  hardly  begin  to  describe.  Yet 
these  same  Tartars  might  shudder  at  being  confronted 
with  a  dish  of  that  Limburg  delicacy  which  finds  its 
way  into  the  best  hotels  of  continental  Europe.  I  can 
not  forget  the  emphatic  protest  of  a  Spanish  officer  who 
was  invited  to  partake  by  a  German  admirer  of  the 
questionable  dainty,  in  the  cabin  of  a  Havana  steamer. 
"  You  think  it  unhealthy  to  eat  that  ? "  inquired  the 
Hamburger,  in  polite  astonishment.  "Unhealthy?" 
exclaimed  the  Hidalgo,  with  a  withering  look  and  a 


56  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

gasp  for  a  more  adequate  word — "  no,  sir  1  I  think  it  an 
unnatural  crime ! " 

Assassin,  assassinate,  and  their  derivatives,  come 
from  hasheesh,  the  Arabian  word  for  hemp.  A  decoc- 
tion of  hemp-leaves,  filtered  and  boiled  down,  yields  a 
greenish-black  residuum  of  intensely  bitter  and  nause- 
ous taste — a  stuff  not  very  likely,  one  should  think,  to 
tempt  a  normally  constituted  human  being.  Yet  this 
same  hasheesh,  Dr.  Nachtigal  assures  us,  can  marshal  a 
larger  army  of  victims  than  either  gunpowder  or  al- 
cohol ;  and  only  the  originator  of  the  opium-habit,  he 
thinks,  will  have  an  uglier  score  against  him  on  the  day 
of  judgment  than  the  Sheik-al-Jebel,  who,  tradition 
says,  first  introduced  the  hasheesh-habit.  A  frugal  diet 
has  this  additional  advantage,  that  simple  food  is  in  less 
danger  of  adulteration,  or  must  at  least  be  imitated  by 
equally  simple  and  harmless  substitutes.  Watered 
milk  or  lard  mixed  with  corn-meal  is  certainly  annoy- 
ing, but  hardly  injurious,  and  is  a  trifle  altogether  if 
compared  with  the  abominations  that  are  half  con- 
sciously consumed  by  the  lovers  of  imported  delicacies 
and  expensive  stimulants.  Dr.  Stenhouse,  of  Liverpool, 
analyzed  a  suspicious  sample  of  tea,  with  the  following 
result,  published  in  the  "  Planters'  Price  Current "  of 
February,  1871 :  The  package  contained  some  pure 
congou-tea  leaves,  also  siftings  of  pekoe  and  inferior 
kinds,  weighing  together  twenty-seven  per  cent  of  the 
whole.  The  remaining  seventy-three  per  cent  were 
composed  of  the  following  adulterants :  Iron,  plum- 
bago, chalk,  china-clay,  sand,  prussian-blue,  turmeric, 
indigo,  starch,  gypsum,  catechu,  gum,  the  leaves  of  the 
camellia,  sarangua,  Chlor antes  officinalis,  elm,  oak,  wil- 
low, poplar,  elder,  beech,  hawthorn,  and  sloe. 

There  is  hardly  any  article  of  food  in  general  use 


DIET.  57 

which  has  not  somewhere  been  converted  into  a  stimu- 
lant by  the  process  of  fermentation.  What  else  are 
whisky,  rum,  beer,  etc.,  but  fermented  or  distilled  bread, 
the  bread-corn  diverted  from  its  legitimate  use  to  pro- 
duce an  artificial  stimulant  ?  Potatoes,  sugar,  honey,  as 
well  as  grapes,  plums,  apples,  cherries,  and  innumerable 
other  fruits,  have  thus  been  turned  from  a  blessing  into 
a  curse.  The  Moors  of  Barbary  and  Tripoli  distill  an 
ardent  spirit  from  the  fruit  of  the  date-palm,  the  Bra- 
zilians from  the  marrow  of  the  sago-tree  and  from  pine- 
apples, and  even  the  poor  berries  that  manage  to  ripen 
on  the  banks  of  the  Yukon  have  to  furnish  a  poison  for 
the  inhabitants  of  Alaska.  Pulque,  the  national  drink 
of  Mexico,  is  derived  from  a  large  variety  of  the  aloe- 
plant,  the  sap  of  which  is  collected  and  fermented  in 
buckskin  sloughs  into  a  turbid  yellowish  liquor  of  most 
vicious  taste. 

Cheese,  in  fact,  is  nothing  but  coagulated  milk  in  a 
more  or  less  advanced  state  of  decay.  Sauerkraut  is 
cabbage  in  the  first  stage  of  fermentation,  which  if  com- 
pleted yields  quass,  the  above-mentioned  Russian  tonic. 
Chica,  a  whitish  liquid  which  in  Peru  is  handed  around 
like  coffee,  after  meals,  is  prepared  from  maize  or  In- 
dian corn,  moistened  and  fermented  by  mastication. 
How  a  fondness  for  such  abominations  is  propagated 
can  be  explained  by  any  boy  who  had  to  drink  beer  or 
eat  strong  cheese  against  his  will,  and  by-and-by  "  rather 
liked  it,"  but  a  question  less  easily  answered  is  how 
such  tastes  ever  could  originate.  To  the  first  man  who 
tasted  hasheesh,  alcohol,  or  pulque,  these  substances 
could  hardly  be  more  tempting,  we  should  think,  than 
coal-tar  or  caustic  sublimate.  But  most  articles  of  food 
and  drink  are  older  than  history.  All  we  can  do  is  to 
trace  their  progress  from  nation  to  nation  and  from  cen- 


58  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

tury  to  century,  but  their  origin  loses  itself  in  the  cloud- 
land  of  tradition.  The  exegesis  of  diet  is  as  proble- 
matic as  that  of  religious  dogmas. 

By  avoiding  pungent  condiments  we  also  obviate 
\)S>LQ  principal  cause  of  gluttony.  It  is  well  known  that 
the  admirers  of  lager-beer  do  not  drink  it  for  the  sake 
of  its  nutritive  properties,  but  as  a  medium  of  stimula- 
tion, and  I  hold  that  nine  out  of  ten  gluttons  swallow 
their  peppered  ragouts  for  the  same  purpose.  Only 
natural  appetites  have  natural  limits.  Two  quarts  of 
water  will  satisfy  the  normal  thirst  of  a  giant,  two 
pounds  of  dates  his  hunger  after  a  two  days'  fast.  But 
the  beer-drinker  swills  till  he  runs  over,  and  the  glutton 
stuffs  himself  till  the  oppression  of  his  chest  threatens 
him  with  suffocation.  Their  unnatural  appetite  has  no 
limits  but  those  of  their  abdominal  capacity.  Poison- 
hunger  would  be  a  better  word  than  appetite.  What 
they  really  want  is  alcohol  and  hot  spices,  and,  being 
unable  to  swallow  them  "straight,"  the  one  takes  a 
bucketful  of  swill,  the  other  a  potful  of  grease  into  the 
bargain. 

But  gluttony  has  one  other  cause — involuntary 
cramming.  Fond  mothers  often  surfeit  then*  babies 
till  they  sputter  and  spew,  and  it  is  not  less  wrong  to 
force  a  child  to  eat  any  particular  kind  of  food  against 
his  grain — in  disregard  of  a  natural  antipathy.  Such 
aversions  are  allied  to  the  feeling  of  repletion  by  which 
Nature  warns  the  eater  to  desist,  and,  if  this  warning  is 
persistently  disregarded,  the  monitory  instinct  finally 
suspends  its  function ;  overeating  becomes  a  morbid 
habit,  our  system  has  adapted  itself  to  the  abnormal 
condition,  and  every  deviation  from  the  new  routine 
produces  the  same  feeling  of  distress  which  shackles  the 
rum-drinker  to  his  unnatural  practice.  Avoid  pungent 


DIET.  59 

spices,  do  not  cram  your  children  against  their  will, 
and  never  fear  that  natural  aliments  will  tempt  them 
to  excess.  But  I  should  add  here  that  of  absolutely  in- 
nocuous food — ripe  food  and  simple  farinaceous  prepa- 
rations— a  larger  quantity  than  is  commonly  imagined 
can  be  habitually  taken  with  perfect  freedom  from  in- 
jurious consequences.  On  the  upper  Rhine  they  have 
Trauben-Curen — sanitaria  where  people  are  fed  almost 
exclusively  on  ripe  grapes  in  order  to  purify  their  blood. 
The  grapes  generally  used  for  this  purpose  are  of  the 
variety  known  as  Muskateller,  with  big,  honey-sweet 
berries  of  a  most  enticing  flavor.  "  Doesn't  such  physic 
tempt  your  patients  ? "  I  asked  the  manager  of  a  famous 
Trauben-Curen ;  "  don't  they  dose  themselves  to  a  dam- 
aging extent  ?  "  His  answer  surprised  me.  "  Damag- 
ing? Yes,  sir,"  said  he,  "they  damage  my  pocket, 
some  of  them  do,  though  I  charge  them  three  florins  a 
day,  lodgers  five.  They  can  not  damage  themselves  by 
eating  Muskateller." 

Never  stint  the  supply  of  fresh  drinking-waterv 
The  danger  of  water-drinking  in  warm  weather  has 
been  grossly  exaggerated.  Cold  water  and  cold  air  are 
the  two  scape-goats  that  have  to  bear  the  burden  of  our 
besetting  sins.  There  is,  indeed,  something  preposter- 
ous in  the  idea  that  Nature  would  punish  us  for  indulg- 
ing a  natural  appetite  to  its  full  extent.  Sheep  that 
have  been  fed  on  dry  corn-husks  all  winter  sometimes 
break  into  a  clover-field  and  eat  till  they  burst ;  but 
who  ever  heard  of  a  dyspeptic  bear,  or  of  an  elk  pros- 
trated by  a  fit  of  gastric  spasms  ?  And  yet  we  need 
not  doubt  that  wild  animals  eat  while  their  appetite 
lasts.  If  we  lock  them  up  and  deprive  them  of  their 
wonted  exercise,  their  appetite,  too,  diminishes.  In 
short,  as  long  as  we  confine  ourselves  to  our  proper 


60  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

diet,  our  stomachs  never  call  for  more  than  we  can  di- 
gest. There  are  things  that  have  to  be  eaten  in  homoe- 
opathic doses  to  prevent  surfeit,  but  respecting  such 
stuff  (Limburger,  caviare,  etc.,  I  would  say,  as  of  spices 
and  alcohol),  abstinence  is  better  than  temperance.  In 
convivial  neighborhoods  sporadic  cases  of  surfeit  are 
almost  as  unavoidable  as  Christmas  dinners  and  school 
picnics ;  but  their  efforts  are  as  transient  as  their  causes. 
For  children,  a  nearly  infallible  peptic  corrective  is  a 
fast-day  passed  in  cheerful  outdoor  exercise.  By  a  cu- 
rious law  of  periodicity,  the  mind  will  stray  to  the  din- 
ing-room when  the  wonted  meal-time  comes  around, 
even  if  genuine  appetite  does  not  return  with  that  hour, 
but  fishing,  hunting,  and  ball-playing  divert  our  thoughts 
from  such  channels,  and,  returning  late  in  the  evening 
from  a  good  day's  sport,  the  periodicity  of  bedroom- 
thoughts,  aided  by  fatigue,  overcomes  the  latent  craving 
for  food  without  the  least  effort.  Try  the  experiment. 

Want  of  appetite  is  not  always  a  morbid  symptom, 
nor  even  a  sign  of  imperfect  digestion.  Nature  may 
have  found  it  necessary  to  muster  all  the  energies  of 
our  system  for  some  special  purpose,  momentarily  of 
paramount  importance.  Organic  changes  and  repairs, 
teething,  pleuritic  epurations,  and  the  external  elimina- 
tion of  bad  humors  (boils,  etc.),  are  often  attended  with 
a  temporary  suspension  of  the  alimentary  process.  The 
instinct  of  domestic  animals  thus  generally  counteracts 
the  influence  of  abnormal  circumstances.  As  a  rule,  it 
is  always  the  safest  plan  to  give  Nature  her  own  way, 
and  was  thus  proved  even  in  the  extreme  cases  of  more 
than  one  lona  fide  fasting  girl,  whose  system,  for  rec- 
ondite reasons  of  its  own,  preferred  to  subsist  on  air 
for  weeks  and  months  together. 

In  regard  to  the  quality  of  food,  too,  there  are  in- 


DIET.  61 

tuitive  dislikes  which  should  not  be  disregarded,  be- 
cause they  can  not  always  be  accounted  for.  I  do  not 
say  likes  and  dislikes;  a  child's  whimsical  desire  to 
treat  innutritions  or  injurious  substances  as  comestibles 
should  certainly  not  be  encouraged  as  long  as  its  hunger 
can  be  appeased  with  less  suspicious  aliments.  For  it 
is  a  curious  fact  that  all  unnatural  practices — the  eating 
of  indigestible  matter  as  well  as  of  poisons — are  apt  to 
excite  a  morbid  appetency  akin  to  the  stimulant  habit. 
The  human  stomach  can  be  accustomed  to  the  most 
preposterous  things.  The  Otomacs,  of  South  America, 
whose  forefathers  in  times  of  scarcity  may  have  tilled 
their  bellies  with  loam,  are  now  afflicted  with  a  national 
penchant  for  swallowing  inorganic  substances.  In  New 
Caledonia,  habitues  often  eat  as  much  as  two  pounds 
of  ferruginous  clay  a  day,  and  a  similar  stuff  is  sold  in 
the  markets  of  Bolivia,  and  finds  eager  purchasers,  even 
when  better  comestibles  are  cheaper.  Professor  Ehren- 
berg  procured  a  sample  of  this  clay  which  was  supposed 
to  contain  organic  admixtures  or  some  kind  of  fat ;  but 
his  analysis  proved  that  it  consists  of  talc,  mica,  and  a 
little  oxide  of  iron.  According  to  Malte-Brun,  the 
Lisbon  lazzaroni  chew  all  day  long  the  insipid,  leathery 
kernels  of  the  carob-bean  (Mimosa  silica),  and  the  most 
popular  "  chewing-gum  "  is  said  to  be  composed  chiefly 
(not  entirely,  I  hope)  of  resin,  paraffine,  and  triturated 
caoutchouc  !  Still,  Ehrenberg's  analysis  makes  stranger 
things  credible.  I  do  not  doubt  that  a  man  might  con- 
tract a  habit  of  swallowing  a  couple  of  slate-pencils  or 
a  dime's  worth  of  shoe-strings  every  morning. 

But  an  innate  repugnance  to  a  special  dish,  or  even 
to  a  special  class  of  aliments,  may  be  indulged  very 
cheaply,  and  certainly  very  safely,  as  long  as  there  are 
other  available  substances  of  the  same  nutritive  value. 


62  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Abnormal  antipathies  may  indicate  constitutional  ab- 
normities, and  among  the  curious  cases  on  record  there 
are  some  which  clearly  preclude  the  idea  of  imaginative 
influences.  I  knew  a  Belgian  soldier  on  whom  common 
salt,  in  any  combination,  and  in  any  dose  exceeding  ten 
pennyweights,  acted  as  a  drastic  poison,  and  thousands 
of  Hindoos  can  not  taste  animal  food  without  vomiting. 
Similar  effects  have  obliged  individuals  to  abstain  from 
onions,  sage,  parsnips,  and  even  from  Irish  potatoes. 
Dr.  Pereira  mentions  the  case  of  an  English  boy  who 
had  an  incurable  aversion  to  mutton :  "  He  could  not 
eat  mutton  in  any  form.  The  peculiarity  was  supposed 
to  be  owing  to  caprice,  but  the  mutton  was  repeatedly 
disguised  and  given  to  him  unknown ;  but  uniformly 
with  the  same  result  of  producing  violent  vomiting  and 
diarrhoaa.  And  from  the  severity  of  the  effects,  which 
were  in  fact  those  of  a  virulent  poison,  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that,  if  the  use  of  mutton  had  been  persisted 
in,  it  would  soon  have  destroyed  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual." * 

It  may  be  considered  as  a  suggestive  circumstance 
that  the  great  plurality  of  such  instinctive  aversions 
relate  either  to  stimulants  or  to  some  kind  of  animal 
food.  To  one  person  whose  stomach  can  not  bear  bread 
or  apples,  we  shall  find  a  thousand  with  an  invincible 
repugnance  to  pork,  coffee,  and  pungent  condiments. 
It  is  also  certain  that,  by  voluntary  abstinence  from  all 
such  things,  the  vigor  of  the  alimentary  organs  can  be 
considerably  increased.  The  Danish  sailors  whom  the 
Dey  of  Algiers  had  fed  on  barley  and  dates  for  a  couple 
of  months,  found  that  after  that  they  "could  digest 
almost  anything."  f 

*  Pereira,  "  Treatise  on  Food  and  Diet,"  p.  242. 
t  Wodderstadt,  "On  Yellow  Fever,"  p.  72. 


DIET. 


63 


By  adopting  an  absolutely  non-stimulating,  chiefly 
vegetable  diet,  combined  with  active  exercise  in  open 
air,  the  most  dyspeptic  glutton  can  cure  himself  in  the 
course  of  a  single  season,  and  by  the  same  means  every 
boarding-school  might  become  a  dietetic  sanitarium. 
The  following  list  of  hygienic  memts  is  arranged  in  the 
order  of  their  digestibility  and  wholesomeness : 

Milk,  bread,  and  fruit. — Eggs  (raw  or  whipped), 
bread  and  honey. — Boiled  eggs,  bread,  and  apples  (an- 
cient Rome). — Bread  and  butter,  rice-pudding,  with 
sugar  and  fresh  milk. — Corn-bread  or  roasted  chest- 
nuts, butter,  honey,  and  grapes  (the  usual  diet  of  the 
long-lived  Corsican  mountaineers). — Fish,  butter,  oat- 
meal-porridge, and  fresh  milk  (Danish  Islands). — Pan- 
cakes, honey  or  new  molasses,  poached  eggs,  boiled 
milk,  and  bread-pudding.  —  Vegetable  soups,  baked 
beans,  potatoes  (baked  or  mashed),  butter,  biscuits,  and 
apple-dumplings. 

GENERAL  RULES. — Avoid  stimulants ;  alcoholic  and 
narcotic  drinks,  tobacco,  and  all  pungent  spices ;  be 
sparing  in  the  use  of  animal  food,  especially  in  summer- 
time ;  in  midsummer  eat  fruit  with  every  meal ;  let 
unprepared  food  (fresh  milk,  fruits,  etc.)  form  a  part 
of  your  daily  fare  ;  of  unprepared  aliments,  as  well  as  of 
all  unspiced  viands,  the  most  palatable  are  the  most 
wholesome  ;  eat  slowly  and  masticate  your  food  ;  never 
eat  if  you  have  no  appetite  ;  and  finish  your  last  meal 
three  hours  before  bed-time. 

As  a  dessert  I  will  add  a  few  of  my  favorite  dietetic 
aphorisms:  An  hour  of  exercise  to  every  pound  of 
food.— We  are  not  nourished  by  what  we  eat,  but  by 
what  we  digest. — Every  hour  you  steal  from  digestion 
will  be  reclaimed  by  indigestion.— Beware  of  the  wrath 
of  a  patient  stomach !— lie  who  controls  his  appetite  in 


£4  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

regard  to  the  quality  of  his  food  may  safely  indulge  it 
in  regard  to  quantity. — The  oftener  you  eat,  the  of tener 
you  will  repent  it. — Dyspepsia  is  a  poor  pedestrian; 
walk  at  the  rate  of  four  miles  an  hour,  and  you  will 
soon  leave  her  behind. — The  road  to  the  rum-cellar 
leads  through  the  coffee-house. — Abstinence  from  all 
stimulants,  only,  is  easier  than  temperance. — There  are 
worthier  objects  of  charity  than  famine-stricken  nations 
that  send  their  breadstuffs  to  the  distillery-. — An  egg  is 
worth  a  pound  of  meat ;  a  milch-cow,  seven  stall-fed 
oxen. — Sleep  is  sweeter  after  a  fast-day  than  after  a 
feast-day. — For  every  meal  you  lose  you  gain  a  better. 

How  often  should  we  eat  is  still  a  mooted  question. 
For  men  in  a  state  of  nature  the  answer  would  be  sim- 
ple enough  ;  but,  considering  our  present  artificial  modes 
of  life,  I  must  say  that  the  choice  of  fixed  hours  is 
less  important  than  the  observation  of  the  following 
rule:  Never  eat  till  you  have  leisure  to  digest.  For 
digestion  requires  leisure;  we  can  not  assimilate  our 
food  while  the  functional  energy  of  our  system  is  en- 
grossed by  other  occupations.  After  a  hearty  feed, 
animals  retire  to  a  quiet  hiding-place ;  and  the  "  after- 
dinner  laziness,"  the  plea  of  our  system  for  rest,  should 
admonish  us  to  imitate  their  example.  The  idea  that 
exercise  after  dinner  promotes  digestion  is  a  mischiev- 
ous fallacy ;  Jules  Yirey  settled  that  question  by  a 
cruel  but  conclusive  experiment.  He  selected  two  curs 
of  the  same  size,  age,  and  general  physique,  made  them 
keep  a  fast-day  and  treated  them  the  next  morning  to  a 
square  meal  of  potato-chips  and  cubes  of  fat  mutton, 
but,  as  soon  as  one  of  them  had  'eaten  his  fill,  he  made 
the  other  stop  too,  to  make  sure  that  they  had  both  con- 
sumed the  same  quantity.  Dog  No.  1  was  then  confined 
in  a  comfortable  kennel,  while  No.  2  had  to  run  after 


DIET.  65 

the  doctor's  coach,  not  at  a  breathless  rate  of  speed,  but 
at  a  fair,  brisk  trot,  for  two  hours  and  a  half.  As  soon 
as  they  got  home,  the  coach-dog  and  his  comrade  were 
slain  and  dissected  ;  the  kennel-dog  had  completely  di- 
gested his  meal,  while  the  chips  and  cubes  in  the  coach- 
dog's  stomach  had  not  changed  their  form  at  all ;  the 
process  of  assimilation  had  not  even  begun !  Railroad 
laborers,  who  bolt  their  dinner  during  a  short  interval 
of  hard  work,  might  as  well  pass  their  recess  in  a  ham- 
mock ;  instead  of  strengthening  them,  their  dinner  will 
only  oppress  them,  till  it  is  digested,  together  with  their 
supper,  in  the  cool  of  the  evening.  In  a  manner  essen- 
tially similar,  mental  activity  tends  to  hinder  the  di- 
gestive process  for  a  considerable  time ;  and  I  believe, 
more  especially,  the  digestion  of  the  very  substances 
that  are  often  selected  as  brain-food  par  excellence. 
Even  after  a  fashionable  dinner  of  six  or  seven  courses 
(curses,  Dr.  Abernethy  used  to  call  them),  two  hours  of 
absolute  rest  will  set  our  wits  a-work  again  ;  but,  if  that 
time  be  passed  behind  a  double-entry  ledger,  a  feeling 
of  lassitude,  often  combined  with  an  almost  resistless 
somnolence,  will  advise  the  brain-worker  that  his  vital 
energy  is  needed  for  other  purposes.  "  I  could  eat  with 
more  comfort  if  it  wasn't  for  the  consciousness  of  hav- 
ing to  hurry  back  to  my  drudgery,"  I  heard  a  poor 
class  teacher  say,  and  the  same  consciousness  embitters 
the  noonday-meal  of  millions  of  school-children  and 
overworked  clerks. 

Andrew  Combe,  M.  D.,  informs  us  that  a  century 
ago  the  tradesmen  of  Edinburgh  used  to  indulge  in  a 
"nooning,"  a  general  suspension  of  business  for  two 
hours,  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  But  an  hour  or  so 
was  thus  probably  spent  in  going  home  and  back,  dress- 
ing, etc.,  and  half  an  hour  at  the  meal  itself ;  so  that, 


6(5  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

after  all,  only  thirty  minutes  remained  for  digestion ; 
and,  considering  the  anachronism  of  that  nooning  prac- 
tice, the  best  plan,  on  the  whole,  would  seem  to  be  a 
general  return  to  the  method  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
who  postponed  their  principal  meal  until  their  day's 
work  was  done.  It  would  be  an  insult  to  common 
sense  and  humanity  to  doubt  that  the  eight-hour  system 
will  ultimately  prevail,  and,  where  it  has  been  already 
adopted,  I  can  see  no  reason  why  mechanics  could  not 
arrange  to  finish  their  day's  job  at  4  p.  M.  Schools 
should  always  close  at  four.  Bankers  and  government 
clerks  often  get  home  before  that  time,  and  competitive 
shopkeepers  might  carry  on  their  business  by  relays. 
At  half-past  four,  or,  say,  five  o'clock,  the  coena  domes- 
tica  might  begin,  conclude  before  six ;  then  doloe  far 
niente,  pleasant  conversation,  and  four  blessed  hours  for 
digestion. 

But  that  principal  meal  should  be  the  last.  It  is  an 
important  rule  that  we  should  digest  our  food  thor- 
oughly before  we  replenish  the  stomach.  To  counteract 
the  effects  of  over-eating,  the  gluttons  of  ancient  Rome 
used  emetics,  the  Parisian  gastronomes  stimulants.  Dr. 
Alcott  wants  us  to  "  leave  off  hungry  "  ;  the  exponents 
of  the  movement-cure  prescribe  a  certain  system  of 
gymnastic  evolutions  before  and  after  dinner.  But 
there  is  a  better  plan  :  Lengthen  the  interval  between 
meals.  Two  meals  a  day  are  enough,  perhaps  more 
than  enough,  though  we  can  accustom  ourselves  to 
swallow  (not  digest)  five  or  six.  It  all  depends  on 
training,  and  in  no  other  respect  is  the  human  system  so 
plastic  to  the  influence  of  habit.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Moffat 
tells  us  that  the  Gonaque  Hottentots  are  noways  in- 
commoded by  a  five  days'  fast,  and  get  old  on  an  aver- 
age of  four  meals  a  week.  The  Greeks  and  Romans 


DIET.  67 

during  the  prime  of  their  republic  contented  themselves 
with  one  meal  a  day  ;  Claude  Bernard  recommends  two, 
but  his  countrymen  generally  eat  three  ;  their  German 
neighbors  four ;  the  East-Germans  even  five  :  breakfast, 
second  breakfast  (zweites  FruhstucJc\  dinner,  Vesperbrot, 
and  supper,  to  which  supper  the  Vienna  burghers  actu- 
ally superadd  a  Nacht-Ussel — a  "  night-lunch,"  of  cold 
potato-salad  with  bread  and  Wurst,  and  often  with  a 
mug  of  beer — "  for  the  stomach's  sake  " !  I  get  along 
comfortably  with  a  meal  and  a  half ;  so  does  my  grand- 
uncle,  an  octogenarian,  who  still  masticates  his  bread 
with  a  full  set  of  unbought  teeth.  Two,  or  one  and 
two  halves,  should  be  enough  for  any  man.  jThe  light- 
est breakfast  is  the  best — buckwheat-cakes  with  a  little 
honey  or  apple-butter,  and  a  glass  of  milk,  or  a  cup 
of  chocolate,  if  you  must  take  "  something  warm." 
Chocolate  possesses  nutritive  properties,  which  tea  and 
coffee  per  se  are  totally  devoid  of.  I  never  use  it,  but 
I  believe  it  is  non-stimulating.  Or  chew  a  crust  of 
stale  bread,  the  best  dentifrice  and  a  useful  absorbent, 
good  for  acidity  of  the  stomach.  At  noon  take  a  glass 
of  milk  and  a  couple  of  biscuits,  or  in  summer  a  couple 
of  ripe  pears  or  peaches  ;  they  will  keep  you  cool  during 
the  post-meridian  heat,  and  do  you  more  good  than  a 
cocktail  lunch.  Kever  keep  a  pocket-flask.  Don't  stay 
with  flagons  ;  better  comfort  with  apples  if  you  can  not 
wait  till  five.  School-children  should  pass  their  recess 
on  the  play-ground.  A  biscuit  and  a  pocketful  of  ap- 
ples will  satisfy  the  temporary  demands  of  the  stomach  : 
and,  if  they  have  munched  up  their  comestibles  in  tin- 
course  of  the  morning,  as  boys  are  apt  to  do,  they  will 
find  it  far  easier  to  forego  their  noonday  lunch  alto- 
gether than  to  resist  the  insidious  somnolence  wUab 
would  dull  their  wits  after  a  regular  dinner,  and  often 


(58  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

makes  the  afternoon  lesson  a  protracted  struggle  be- 
tween nature  and  duty. 

But  at  the  principal  meal  they  should  eat  their  fill. 
Let  them  pitch  in,  without  fear  of  dangerous  conse- 
quences— unless  your  landlord  charges  by  the  plateful. 
Children,  like  monkeys,  have  a  way  of  dallying  with 
their  food  if  they  are  full — picking  a  crumb  here  and 
there,  or  mumbling  their  apples  without  using  their 
teeth.  Make  them  get  up  if  you  notice  such  symptoms, 
or,  better,  entice  them  away  by  improvising  some  out- 
door or  up-stairs  amusement.  But  I  repeat,  never  press 
them  to  eat — for  principle's  sake — not  even  your  young 
visitors ;  they  are  not  likely  to  go  to  bed  hungry  if  your 
menu  comprises  such  items  as  baked  apples  or  bread- 
pudding  and  sweet  milk. 

Jean  Jacques  Rousseau  holds  that  intemperate  habits 
are  mostly  acquired  in  early  boyhood,  when  blind  def- 
erence to  social  precedents  is  apt  to  overcome  our  nat- 
ural antipathies,  and  that  those  who  have  passed  that 
period  in  safety  have  generally  escaped  the  danger  of 
temptation.  The  same  holds  good  of  other  dietetic 
abuses.  If  a  child's  natural  aversion  to  vice  has  never 
been  willfully  perverted,  the  time  will  come  when  his 
welfare  may  be  intrusted  to  the  safe-keeping  of  his  pro- 
tective instincts.  You  need  not  fear  that  he  will 
swerve  from  the  path  of  health  when  his  simple  habits, 
sanctioned  by  Nature  and  inclination,  have  acquired  the 
additional  strength  of  long  practice.  When  the  age  of 
blind  deference  is  passed,  vice  is  generally  too  unattrac- 
tive to  be  very  dangerous.  "Why  make  yourself  the 
slave  of  such  a  degrading  habit  ?  ".  says  Count  Zinzen- 
dorf,  in  his  « Hirtenbrief " ;  "it  is  so  easy  never  to 
begin ! "  I  go  further.  I  say  it  is  difficult  to  begin. 
Nature  is  not  neutral  on  a  point  of  such  importance. 


DIET.  69 

Between  virtue  and  vice  she  has  erected  a  bulwark 
which  she  intended  to  last  from  birth  to  death.  We 
need  not  strengthen  that  bulwark.  "We  need  not  guard 
it  with  anxious  care ;  it  will  stand  the  ordinary  wear 
and  tear  of  life.  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  save  ourselves 
the  extraordinary  trouble  of  breaking  it  down. 

Pure  joys  never  pall ;  uniformity  is  uniform  happi- 
ness if  the  even  tenor  of  our  way  is  the  way  of  Nature. 
And  Nature  herself  will  guide  our  steps  if  the  exigence 
of  abnormal  circumstances  should  require  a  deviation 
from  the  beaten  path.  Remedial  instincts  are  not  con- 
fined to  the  lower  animals ;  man  has  his  full  share  of 
them ;  the  self -regulating  power  of  the  human  system 
is  as  wonderful  in  the  variety  as  in  the  simplicity  of  its 
resources.  Have  you  ever  observed  the  weather-wisdom 
of  the  black  bind- weed  ? — how  its  flowers  open  to  the 
morning  sun  and  close  at  the  approach  of  the  noontide 
glare ;  how  its  tendrils  expand  their  spirals  in  a  calm, 
but  contract  and  cling,  as  with  hands,  to  their  support 
when  the  storm-wind  sweeps  the  woods?  With  the 
same  certainty  our  dietetic  instincts  respond  to  the  vary- 
ing demands  of  our  daily  life.  Without  the  aid  of  art, 
without  the  assistance  of  our  own  experience,  they  even 
adapt  themselves  to  the  exigencies  of  our  abnormal  so- 
cial conditions,  and  our  interference  alone  often  pre- 
vents them  from  counteracting  the  tendency  of  dire 
abuses. 

Summer  brings  no  repose  to  the  slaves  of  Mammon, 
but  dull  headaches  and  the  stomach's  imperative  de- 
mand for  rest  convince  even  the  unwilling  that  intricate 
arithmetical  problems  and  90°  Fahr.  are  incompatible 
with  digestion ;  and  I  ascribe  it  to  the  logic  of  those 
gastric  arguments  that  bankers  and  brokers  now  close 
their  shops  at  3  p.  M.  ;  and  that  business-men  generally 


70  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

avoid  repletion  in  the  middle  of  the  day.  "  Cheese  is 
gold  in  the  morning,  silver  at  noon,  and  lead  at  night," 
says  a  mediaeval  proverb  ;  but  the  effects  of  those  horrid 
cheese  and  porter  breakfasts  of  Queen  Anne's  time  sat- 
isfied our  grandams  that  rotten  curd  and  fermented  (i.  e., 
putrid)  barley-broth  are  always  lead,  except  to  those 
who  employ  the  hygienic  philosopher's  stone — active 
and  long-continued  out-door  exercise.  After  recovery 
from  an  exhausting  sickness — especially  if  you  decide 
to  promote  that  recovery  by  throwing  physic  to  the  dogs 
— the  demands  of  your  stomach  will  often  become  ex- 
orbitant, but  only  apparently  so ;  your  system  wants  to 
repair  the  waste  of  the  disease.  Never  fear  that  "  the 
digestive  organs  are  too  feeble  yet,"  etc. ;  those  organs 
will  keep  their  promise,  unless  you  break  yours  by  re- 
suming medication.  Have  you  eaten  more  than  the 
wants  of  your  system  require  ?  Your  appetite  will  not 
respond  to  your  invitation  at  the  next  meal.  Take  the 
hint — wait.  Do  not  increase  the  troubles  of  your 
stomach  by  mordant  spices  and  alcohol.  In  the  sultry 
dog-days  your  system  craves  a  surcease  of  greasy  ragouts 
and  yearns  for  something  refreshing — sherbet  or  cool 
fruit.  Get  a  water-melon.  "  But  isn't  the  yellow  fever 
in  town?  Quack,  Quinine,  and  other  leading  physi- 
cians, agree  that  one  must  take  a  course  of  antiseptics, 
and  avoid  vegetables  at  such  seasons."  Don't  believe 
them ;  Nature  knows  better.  Fruit  is  a  better  antisep- 
tic than  fusel  poison  and  wormwood.  The  frugivorous 
Mexican  survives  where  the  beef-eating  stranger  dies  in 
spite  of  his  bitters.  If  sailors  have  been  surfeited  with 
salt  meat,  their  craving  after  lemon-juice  or  fresh  fruit 
becomes  more  urgent  from  day  to  day ;  the  surcharge 
of  their  organism  with  saline  matter  requires  a  neutral- 
izing acid.  A  single  meal  of  salt  herring  excites  mere- 


DIET.  11 

ly  thirst ;  common  water  is  yet  sufficient  to  dilute  the 
ingesta  and  eliminate  the  salt.  Vegetable  substances 
that  consist  chiefly  of  starch  and  water  supply  the  wants 
of  our  organism  less  completely  than  those  that  contain 
an  admixture  of  gluten,  albumen,  and  fat ;  and,  if  we 
restrict  our  diet  to  the  first-named  class  of  aliments,  our 
system  announces  the  deficit  by  means  of  our  senses ; 
without  such  complements  as  milk,  sugar,  or  fat,  rice- 
bread  is  more  insipid  than  bread  from  unbolted  wheat- 
flour. 

All  dietetic  needs  of  our  body  thus  announce  them- 
selves in  a  versatile  language  of  their  own,  and  he  who 
has  learned  to  interpret  that  language,  nor  willfully  dis- 
regards its  just  appeals,  may  avoid  all  digestive  disor- 
ders— not  by  fasting  if  he  is  hungry,  or  forcing  food 
upon  his  protesting  stomach,  not  by  convulsing  his  bow- 
els with  nauseous  drugs,  but  by  quietly  following  the 
guidance  of  his  instincts. 

Nature's  health  laws  are  simple.  The  road  to  health 
and  happiness  is  not  the  labyrinthine  maze  described  by 
our  medical  mystagogues.  In  perusing  their  dietetic 
codes  one  is  fairly  bewildered  by  a  mass  of  incongruous 
precepts  and  prescriptions,  laborious  compromises  be- 
tween old  and  new  theories,  arbitrary  rules,  and  illogi- 
cal exceptions,  anti-natural  restrictions  and  anti-natural 
remedies.  Their  view  of  the  constitution  of  man  sug- 
gests the  King  of  Aragon's  remark  about  the  cycles  and 
epicycles  of  the  Ptolemaic  system :  "  It  strikes  me  the 
Creator  might  have  arranged  this  business  in  a  simpler 
way." 

All  normal  things  are  good,  att  evil  is  abnormal,  is 
an  axiom  which  has  been  almost  reversed  in  the  prin- 
ciple of  our  orthodox  health  theories,  for  many  of  our 
physical  educators  still  hold  to  the  cardinal  error  of 


^2  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

their  spiritual  colleagues,  who  consider  depravity  and 
wretchedness  as  the  normal  condition  of  man,  and  hap- 
piness as  the  reward  of  a  self -abhorring  suppression  of 
all  natural  desires  and  of  a  blind  confidence  in  the  effi- 
cacy of  an  abnormal  and  mysterious  remedy — nay,  who 
despise  Earth  herself  as  a  "  vale  of  tears,"  and  life  as  a 
disease  whose  only  cure  is  death,  whose  only  anodyne  a 
dream  of  a  supernatural  elysium.  It  is  time  to  awake 
from  that  dream.  It  is  time  to  open  our  eyes  to  the 
well-springs  of  life  and  happiness  which  the  bounty  of 
our  Mother  Earth  sends  forth  in  such  abundance,  and 
which  man  might  enjoy  with  all  his  fellow-creatures  if 
his  perversity  had  not  turned  them  into  sources  of  mis- 
ery and  death.  Instead  of  insulting  our  Maker  by  the 
doctrine  of  innate  depravity,  we  should  learn  to  distin- 
guish the  voice  of  our  natural  instincts  from  the  crav- 
ings of  a  morbid  appetency.  "We  should  try  to  restore 
life  to  its  original  purity  and  healthfulness,  instead  of 
despising  it  and  looking  for  happiness  beyond  the 
grave. 

But  the  deluge  of  mediaeval  superstitions  is  fast  as- 
suaging, and  many  a  submerged  truth  has  reappeared 
like  a  bequest  of  a  former  and  better  world,  and  now 
stands  as  a  way-mark  on  the  road  to  a  true  Science  of 
Life.  "We  have  rediscovered  the  truth  that  the  weal 
and  woe  of  earth  are  not  distributed  by  the  caprices  of 
a  mysterious  Fate,  but  that  they  follow  as  sure  effects 
upon  ascertainable  causes.  Our  best  thinkers  have 
ceased  to  doubt  that  man  can  work  out  his  own  destiny, 
that  the  Creator  has  made  us  the  keepers  of  our  own 
happiness  on  conditions  which  he  never  violates ;  that 
he  has  attached  pleasure  to  every  right  act,  and  pain  to 
every  wrong,  that  he  fulfills  the  promises  of  our  yearn- 
ings, and  never  permits  us  to  sin  unwarned.  "We  have 


DIET.  73 

at  last  begun  to  realize  the  fact  that  the  physical  laws 
of  God  find  an  echo  in  the  voice  of  our  innate  monitor, 
and  only  an  hereditary  mistrust  in  our  instincts  makes 
us  still  hesitate  to  commit  ourselves  to  its  guidance. 
But  experience  will  overcome  that  prejudice  by-and-by ; 
duty  and  inclination  will  go  hand  in  hand,  and  the  re- 
sult will  justify  our  trust  in  the  wisdom  and  benevo- 
lence of  Nature. 

4 


CHAPTER  II 

IN-DOOR   LIFE. 

"  What  is  to  the  mind  a  healthy  body, 
To  the  body  is  a  healthy  house." 

— FABIO  COLONNA. 

NEXT  to  our  dietetic  sins,  the  abuses  connected  with 
our  habits  of  domestic  life  have  contributed  the  largest 
share  to  the  great  sum  of  human  misery.  Yet  few 
evils  might  be  more  easily  avoided.  There  are  diseases 
which  may  be  considered  as  visitations  of  national  ini- 
quities whose  consequences  are  almost  beyond  the  con- 
trol of  individuals;  but  for  the  sufferings  caused  by 
scrofula  and  pulmonary  disorders  we  are  indebted  chief- 
ly to  our  own  prejudices.  Prejudice  and  ignorance 
have  filled  more  consumptives'  graves  than  poverty. 
Even  in  large  manufacturing  towns  air  is  free.  If  our 
artisans  could  realize  the  consequences  of  breathing 
miasma,  they  would  prefer  the  life-air  of  the  wildest 
wilderness  to  the  lung-poison  of  their  slums;  like  a 
caged  bird,  the  tenement  prisoner  would  refuse  to  pair 
rather  than  people  the  earth  with  cachectic  wretches. 
The  exodus  of  their  workmen  would  soon  induce  manu- 
facturers to  imitate  the  founder  of  Saltaire  ;  building 
speculators  would  find  it  to  their  adventage  to  adopt  the 
Philadelphia  plan,  adding  suburb  to  suburb  rather  than 
loft  to  loft ;  cities  would  grow  outward  instead  of  up- 
ward. A  reform  of  that  sort  would  imply  various  modi- 
fications of  our  present  labor  system ;  but  before  the 


IN-DOOR  LIFE.  75 

enlightenment  of  public  opinion  such  difficulties  vanish 
like  mist  before  the  rising  sun.  There  was  a  time 
when  it  was  actually  proposed  to  abolish  the  summer 
vacations  of  the  French  town  schools  "  in  order  to  en- 
large their  curriculum  in  proportion  to  the  advance  of 
modern  science " ;  but,  since  we  have  ascertained  that 
out-door  exercise  is  more  important  than  all  the  gra- 
phics and  ologies  of  the  Academic  Francaise,  it  has 
been  found  that,  with  a  well-arranged  plan  of  instruc- 
tion ten  months  a  year,  five  days  a  week  and  six  hours 
a  day  are  quite  enough  for  any  school.  If  the  eight- 
hour  system  were  generally  adopted,  operatives  would 
not  be  compelled  to  live  within  ear-shot  of  the  factory- 
whistle,  and  in  very  large  cities  the  daily  influx  and 
reflux  of  a  suburban  multitude  would  enable  railroad 
companies  to  carry  individuals  at  rates  which  the  poor- 
est would  call  moderate.  Far  enough  from  the  city 
center  to  evade  the  region  of  dear  building-lots,  and  yet 
within  easy  reach  of  all  kinds  of  door  and  sash  factories 
and  planing-mills,  there  would  be  no  need  of  crowding 
three  generations  into  a  single  room,  and  suffocating 
them  with  mingled  kitchen-fumes  and  sick-bed  odors. 
Three  rooms  and  an  out-house  should  be  the  minimum 
for  a  family  with  children. 

In  a  tolerable  location,  the  air  of  a  three-room  cot- 
tage can  be  kept  pure  enough  without  force  ventilators 
or  any  other  expensive  contrivance.  Open  your  win- 
dows ;  in  very  cold  weather,  air  the  bedrooms  in  day- 
time and  the  others  at  night.  In  larger  houses,  the 
kitchen,  parlor,  and  dining-room  should  bo  thoroughly 
ventilated  every  night,  also  in  day-time  at  convenient 
intervals,  during  the  temporary  absence  of  the  occu- 
pants. To  save  foul  air  for  the  sake  of  its  warmth  is 
poor  economy ;  experiments  would  show  that  the  dinVr- 


76  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

ence  in  fuel  amounts  only  to  a  trifle,  anyhow.  Ten  or 
twelve  pounds  of  coal  a  day  ought  not  to  weigh  against 
the  direct  gain  in  comfort  and  the  prospective,  unspeak- 
able gain  in  health.  Breathing  the  same  air  over  and 
over  again  means  to  feed  the  organism  on  the  excre- 
tions of  our  own  lungs,  air  surcharged  with  noxious 
gases  and  almost  depleted  of  the  life-sustaining  princi- 
ple. Azotized  air  affects  the  lungs  as  the  substitution 
of  excrements  for  nourishing  food  would  affect  our 
digestive  organs :  corruption  sets  in  ;  pulmonary  phthisis 
is,  in  fact,  a  process  of  putrefaction. 

No  ventilatory  contrivance  can  compare  with  the 
simple  plan  of  opening  a  window ;  in  wet  nights  a 
"rain-shutter"  (a  blind  with  large,  overlapping  bars) 
will  keep  a  room  both  airy  and  dry.  In  every  bedroom, 
one  of  the  upper  windows  should  be  kept  open  night 
and  day,  except  in  storms,  accompanied  with  rain  or 
with  a  degree  of  cold  exceeding  10°  Fahr.  In  warm 
summer  nights  open  every  window  in  the  house  and 
every  door  connecting  the  bedroom  with  the  adjoining 
apartments.  Create  a  thorough  draught.  Before  we 
can  hope  to  fight  consumption  with  any  chance  of  suc- 
cess, we  have  to  get  rid  of  the  night-air  superstition. 
Like  the  dread  of  cold  water,  raw  fruit,  etc.,  it  is 
founded  on  that  mistrust  of  our  instincts  which  we  owe 
to  our  anti-natural  religion.  It  is  probably  the  most 
prolific  single  cause  of  impaired  health,  even  among 
the  civilized  nations  of  our  enlightened  age,  though  its 
absurdity  rivals  the  grossest  delusions  of  the  witchcraft 
era.  The  subjection  of  holy  reason  to  hearsays  could 
hardly  go  further. 

"  Beware  of  the  night- wind ;  be  sure  and  close  your 
windows  after  dark " !  In  other  words,  beware  of 
God's  free  air;  be  sure  and  infect  your  lungs  with  the 


IN-DOOR  LIFE. 


77 


stagnant,  azotized,  and  offensive  atmosphere  of  your 
bedroom.  In  other  words,  beware  of  the  rock  spring ; 
stick  to  sewerage.  Is  night-air  injurious  ?  Is  there  a 
single  tenable  pretext  for  such  an  idea  ?  Since  the  day 
of  creation  that  air  has  been  breathed  with  impunity  by 
millions  of  different  animals — tender,  delicate  creatures, 
some  of  them — fawns,  lambs,  and  young  birds.  The 
moist  night-air  of  the  tropical  forests  is  breathed  with 
impunity  by  our  next  relatives,  the  anthropoid  apes — 
the  same  apes  that  soon  perish  with  consumption  in  the 
close  though  generally  well-warmed  atmosphere  of  our 
northern  menageries.  Thousands  of  soldiers,  hunters, 
and  lumbermen  sleep  every  night  in  tents  and  open 
sheds  without  the  least  injurious  consequences ;  men  in 
the  last  stage  of  consumption  have  recovered  by  adopt- 
ing a  semi-savage  mode  of  life,  and  camping  out-doors 
in  all  but  the  stormiest  nights.  Is  it  the  draught  you 
fear,  or  the  contrast  of  temperature  ?  Blacksmiths  and 
railroad-conductors  seem  to  thrive  under  such  influences. 
Draught?  Have  you  never  seen  boys  skating  in  the 
teeth  of  a  snow-storm  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  miles  an 
hour  ?  "  They  counteract  the  effect  of  the  cold  air  by 
vigorous  exercise."  Is  there  no  other  way  of  keeping 
warm  ?  Does  the  north  wind  damage  the  fine  lady  sit- 
ting motionless  in  her  sleigh,  or  the  pilot  and  helmsman 
of  a  storm-tossed  vessel  ?  It  can  not  be  the  inclemency 
of  the  open  air,  for,  even  in  sweltering  summer  nights, 
the  sweet  south  wind,  blessed  by  all  creatures  that  draw 
the  breath  of  life,  brings  no  relief  to  the  victim  of 
aerophobia.  There  is  no  doubt  that  families  who  have 
freed  themselves  from  the  curse  of  that  superstition  can 
live  out  and  out  healthier  in  the  heart  of  a  great  city 
than  its  slaves  on  the  airiest  highland  of  the  southern 
Apennines. 


78 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 


People  of  sedentary  habits  can  actually  become  fond 
of  foul  air.  In  our  large  cities  thousands  of  in-door 
laborers  are  afflicted  with  what  I  might  call  the  troglo- 
dyte habit.  The  troglodytes,  or  cave-dwellers  of  an- 
cient Nubia,  belonged  to  a  tribe  which  seems  to  have 
formed  an  intermediate  link  between  the  Semitic  and 
Ethiopian  races,  but  which  had  become  entirely  extinct 
before  the  second  century  of  the  Christian  era.  Be- 
tween Sidi  Elgor  and  Port  Er-nassid  (the  ancient  Bere- 
nice), on  the  shores  of  the  Ked  Sea,  a  German  traveler 
examined  many  of  the  limestone-caverns  which  were 
the  favorite  haunts  of  these  singular  beings,  and  found 
no  difficulty  in  distinguishing  the  bones  of  the  Coptic 
and  Arabian  burial-places  from  the  troglodyte  skele- 
tons, which  could  be  recognized  by  their  demi-simian 
skulls,  their  attenuated  brachial  and  femorai  bones,  and 
especially  their  narrow  chests. 

These  peculiarities  he  ascribes  to  the  unnatural 
habits  of  the  wretched  cave-men,  who,  from  cowardice 
or  constitutional  sloth,  passed  the  greater  part  of  their 
existence  in  the  penetralia  of  their  foul  burrows,  while 
their  neighbors  preferred  a  manlier  way  of  securing 
themselves  against  enemies  and  wild  beasts,  and  saved 
themselves  from  the  glow  of  the  midsummer  sun  by 
cultivating  shade-trees.  "Herodotus  speaks  of  perse- 
cutions," he  remarks,  "  but  this  fixed  custom  of  theirs 
may,  perhaps,  be  attributed  to  vicious  habit,  strength- 
ened by  hereditary  transmission,  quite  as  much  as  to 
necessity,  for  men  can  become  fond  of  vitiated  air,  as 
they  contract  a  passion  for  fermented  drink  or  decayed 
food."  In  1853,  when  Hanover  and  other  parts  of 
Northern  Germany  were  visited  by  a  very  malignant 
kind  of  small-pox,  the  great  anatomist,  Langenbeck, 
tried  to  discover  "  the  peculiarity  of  organic  structure 


IN-DOOR  LIFE. 


79 


wliicli  disposes  one  man  to  catch  the  disease  while  hie 
neighbor  escapes.  ...  I  have  cut  up  more  human 
bodies  than  the  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain  with  all  his 
accomplices,"  he  writes  from  Gottingen  in  his  semi- 
annual report,  "  and,  speaking  only  of  my  primary  ob- 
ject, I  must  confess  that  I  am  no  wiser  than  before. 
But,  though  the  mystery  of  small-pox  has  eluded  my 
search,  my  labors  have  not  been  in  vain ;  they  have  re- 
vealed to  me  something  else — the  origin  of  consump- 
tion. I  am  sure  now  of  what  I  suspected  long  ago,  viz., 
that  pulmonary  diseases  have  very  little  to  do  with  in- 
temperance or  with  erotic  excesses,  and  much  less  with 
cold  weather,  but  are  nearly  exclusively  (if  we  except 
tuberculous  tendencies  inherited  from  both  parents,  I 
say  quite  exclusively)  produced  by  the  breathing  of  foul 
air.  The  lungs  of  all  persons,  minors  included,  who 
had  worked  for  some  years  in  close  workshops  and  dusty 
factories,  showed  the  germs  of  the  fatal  disease,  while 
confirmed  inebriates,  who  had  passed  their  days  in  open 
air,  had  preserved  their  respiratory  organs  intact,  what- 
ever inroads  their  excesses  had  made  on  the  rest  of  their 
system.  If  I  should  go  into  practice  and  undertake  the 
cure  of  a  consumptive,  I  should  begin  by  driving  him 
out  into  the  Deister  (a  densely-wooded  mountain-range 
of  Hanover),  and  prevent  him  from  entering  a  house 
for  a  year  or  two." 

The  ablest  pathologists  of  the  present  time  incline 
to  the  same  view.  "  There  is  a  cure  for  consumption," 
says  Dio  Lewis,  "  though  I  doubt  if  it  will  ever  become 
popular.  Even  in  its  advanced  stages  the  disease  may 
be  arrested  by  roughing  it ;  I  mean  by  adopting  savage 
habits,  and  living  out-doors  altogether,  and  in  all  kinds 
of  weather." 

That  low  temperature  in  open  air  does  not  injure 


80 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 


our  lungs  lias  been  recognized  even  by  old-school  phy- 
sicians, who  now  send  their  patients  to  Minnesota  and 
Northern  Michigan  quite  as  often  as  to  Florida ;  and  is 
conclusively  proved  by  the  fact  that  of  all  nations  of  the 
earth,  next  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Senegal  highlands, 
the  Norwegians,  Icelanders,  and  Yakuts  of  Northern 
Siberia,  enjoy  the  most  perfect  immunity  from  tuber- 
cular diseases.  Dry  and  intensely  cold  air  preserves 
decaying  organic  tissue  by  arresting  decomposition,  and 
it  would  be  difficult  to  explain  how  the  most  effective 
remedy  came  to  be  suspected  of  being  the  cause  of  tu- 
berculosis, unless  we  remember  that,  where  fuel  is  ac- 
cessible, the  disciple  of  civilization  rarely  fails  to  take 
refuge  from  excessive  cold  in  its  opposite  extreme — an 
overheated  artificial  atmosphere — and  thus  comes  to 
connect  severe  winters  with  the  idea  of  pectoral  com- 
plaints. 

There  is  a  rather  numerous  class  of  beasts  whose 
lungs  seem  able  to  adapt  themselves  to  an  atmosphere 
almost  devoid  of  oxygen,  but  the  human  animal  and  the 
Quadrumana  do  not  belong  to  that  class.  Monsieur  de 
la  Motte-Baudin,  who  was  connected  with  the  scientific 
staff  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  as  their  "  menagerie- 
doctor  "  for  more  than  twenty  years,  never  omitted  to 
dissect  his  deceased  patients  before  turning  them  over 
to  the  taxidermist,  and  invariably  found  that  all  mon- 
keys had  succumbed  to  some  variety  of  phthisis,  while 
the  lungs  of  the  badgers,  bears,  and  foxes,  were  per- 
fectly sound.  The  three  last-named  animals  are  natural 
cave-dwellers,  and  have  been  provided  with  organs  es- 
pecially contrived  to  resist  the  effluvia  of  their  burrows ; 
while  the  Simice,  like  man,  are  open-air  creatures,  whose 
proper  atmosphere  is  the  cordial  air  of  woodlands. 

Among  the  natives  of  Senegambia  pulmonary  affec- 


IN-DOOR  LIFE. 


81 


tions  are  not  only  nearly  but  absolutely  unknown;  yet 
a  single  year  passed  in  the  overcrowded  man-pens  and 
steerage-hells  of  the  slave-trader  often  sufficed  to  develop 
the  disease  in  that  most  virulent  form  known  as  gallop- 
ing consumption  ;  and  the  brutal  planters  of  the  Spanish 
Antilles  made  a  rule  of  never  buying  an  imported  negro 
before  they  had  "tested  his  wind,"  i.  e.,  trotted  him 
up-hill  and  watched  his  respirations.  If  he  proved  to 
be  "  a  roarer,"  as  turfmen  term  it,  they  knew  that  the 
dungeon  had  done  its  work,  and  discounted  his  value 
accordingly.  "  If  a  perfectly  sound  man  is  imprisoned 
for  life,"  says  Baron  d'Arblay,  the  Belgian  philanthro- 
pist, "  his  lungs,  as  a  rule,  will  first  show  symptoms  of 
disease,  and  shorten  his  misery  by  a  hectic  decline,  un- 
less he  should  commit  suicide." 

Our  home  statistics  show  that  the  percentage  of 
deaths  by  consumption  in  each  State  bears  an  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  greater  or  smaller  number  of  inhabitants 
who  follow  in-door  occupations,  and  is  highest  in  the 
factory  districts  of  New  England  and  the  crowded  cit- 
ies of  our  central  States.  In  Great  Britain  the  rate  in- 
creases with  the  latitude,  and  attains  its  maximum 
height  in  Glasgow,  where,  as  Sir  Charles  Brodie  re- 
marks, windows  are  opened  only  one  day  for  every  two 
in  Birmingham,  and  every  three  and  a  half  in  London ; 
but  going  farther  north  the  percentage  suddenly  Pinks 
from  twenty-three  to  eleven,  and  even  to  six,  if  we  cross 
the  fifty-seventh  parallel,  which  marks  the  boundary  be- 
tween the  manufacturing  counties  of  Central  Scotland 
and  the  pastoral  regions  of  the  north. 

It  is  distressingly  probable,  then,  to  say  the  lr;i-f, 
that  consumption,  that  most  fearful  scourge  of  the  hu- 
man race,  is  not  a  "mysterious  dispensation  of  Provi- 
dence," nor  a  "  product  of  our  outrageous  climate,"  but 


82  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

the  direct  consequence  of  an  outrageous  violation  of  the 
physical  laws  of  God.  Dyspepsia  (for  which  also  open- 
air  exercise  is  the  only  remedy),  hypochondria,  and  not 
only  obstruction  but  destruction  of  the  sense  of  smell — 
"  knowledge  from  one  entrance  quite  shut  out " — will 
all  be  pronounced  mere  trifles  by  any  one  who  has  wit- 
nessed the  protracted  agony  of  the  Luft-Notli,  as  the 
Germans  call  it  with  horrid  directness — the  frantic,  in- 
effectual struggle  for  life-air.  Dr.  Haller  thought  that, 
if  God  punishes  suicide,  he  would  make  an  exception  in 
favor  of  consumptives ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that, 
without  the  merit  of  martyrdom,  the  victim  of  the  cruel 
disease  endures  worse  than  ever  Eastern  despot  or  grand- 
Inquisitor  could  inflict  on  the  objects  of  his  wrath,  be- 
cause the  same  amount  of  torture  in  any  other  form 
would  induce  speedier  death. 

But  not  only  the  punishments  but  also  the  warnings 
of  Nature  are  proportioned  to  the  magnitude  of  each 
offense  against  her  laws.  Injurious  substances  are  re- 
pulsive to  our  taste,  incipient  exhaustion,  warns  us  by  a 
feeling  of  hunger  or  weariness,  and  every  strain  on  our 
frame  that  threatens  us  with  rupture  or  dislocation  an- 
nounces the  danger  by  an  unmistakable  appeal  to  our 
sensorium.  How,  then,  can  it  be  reconciled  with  the 
immutable  laws  of  life  that  the  greatest  bane  of  our 
physical  organism  overcomes  us  so  unawares  that  con- 
sumption is  proverbially  referred  to  as  the  insidious 
disease  ?  Should  it  really  be  possible  that  Nature  has 
failed  to  provide  any  alarm-signals  against  a  danger  like 
this  ?  The  truth  is,  that  none  of  her  protests  are  more 
pathetic  or  more  persistent  than  those  directed  against 
the  habit  that  is  fraught  with  such  pernicious  conse- 
quences to  our  respiratory  organs. 

It  is  probable  that  some  of  the  victims  of  our  nu- 


IN-DOOR  LIFE.  83 

merous  dietetic  abuses  have  become  initiated  to  these 
vices  at  such  an  early  period  of  their  lives  that  they 
have  forgotten  the  time  when  the  taste  of  tea  and  alco- 
hol seemed  bitter,  or  the  smell  of  tobacco  produced  nau- 
sea ;  but  I  am  certain  that  no  man  gifted  with  a  mod- 
erate share  of  memory,  who  has  grown  up  in  the  pest 
atmosphere  of  our  city  tenements,  school-rooms,  and 
workshops,  can  forget  the  passionate  yearnings  of  his 
childhood  for  the  free  air  of  the  woods  and  mountains ; 
the  wild  outcry  of  his  instinct  against  the  process  that 
inoculated  him  with  the  seeds  of  death,  and  stunted  the 
development  of  his  most  vital  faculties.  The  remorse- 
lessness  of  the  pagan  Chinese,  who  smother  the  life- 
spark  of  their  infants  in  the  swift  embrace  of  the  river- 
god,  is  mercy  itself  compared  to  the  cruelty  of  Christian 
parents  who  suffocate  their  children  by  the  slow  process 
of  stinting  their  life-air,  through  years  and  years  of 
confinement  in  dungeons  to  which  an  enlightened  com- 
munity would  not  even  consign  their  malefactors. 

Honest  Jean  Paul  relates  that  he  used  to  secure  a 
seat  in  a  certain  corner  of  an  overcrowded  village 
school-house,  where  a  knot-hole  in  the  wall  established 
a  communication  with  the  outer  world.  Through  this 
orifice  he  imbibed  comfort  and  inspiration  as  from  a 
flask,  but  conceived  conscientious  scruples  against  the 
practice,  as  he  never  could  indulge  without  becoming 
conscious  of  a  temptation  to  abandon  his  old  parents 
and  his  home,  and  join  a  troop  of  wood-cutters  or  gyp- 
sies, not  from  any  vagrant  tendencies,  or  want  of  duti- 
ful sentiments,  but  from  an  almost  irresistible  desire 
to  make  the  luxury  of  fresh  air  a  permanent  blessing. 
"  I  knew  they  would  charge  me  with  black  ingratitude, 
if  I  should  run  away,"  he  says.  "  Good  God !  how  I 
longed  to  prove  my  affection  by  working  for  them  in 


84  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

wind  and  weather,  fetching  in  cord-wood  from  the 
woods  and  splitting  it  into  the  nicest,  handiest  pieces, 
carrying  messages  over  the  snow-covered  mountains  and 
be  back  in  half  the  time  any  one  else  could  make  the 
trip — do  anything  that  would  save  me — not  from  my 
books,  but  from  that  glowing  Moloch  of  a  big  stove, 
and  that  stifling,  soul-stifling  smell  of  our  dungeon !  " 

Even  to  the  most  inveterate  believer  in  natural  de- 
pravity this  might  suggest  a  doubt  whether  the  repug- 
nance of  children  to  study  may  not  be  founded  on  a 
physical  virtue  rather  than  on  moral  perverseness.  To 
whatever  is  really  beneficent  we  are  commonly  drawn 
by  natural  attraction,  and  whatever  appears  violently 
repulsive  to  youthful  minds  may  be  justly  suspected  of 
containing  more  of  evil  than  of  good.  The  very  dis- 
ciple of  Socrates  who  used  to  run  sixteen  miles  a  day  to 
hear  the  apio-ros  larpnv  (best  of  physicians),  would  have 
hesitated  to  purchase  physic  for  his  soul  at  the  price  of 
physical  health ;  and  we  can  not  blame  our  children  for 
being  unable  to  reconcile  the  precepts  they  hear  with 
those  they  feel,  and  giving  way  now  and  then  to  the 
more  consistent  and  more  logical  prompter. 

The  farmer's  boy  may  look  forward  to  each  after- 
noon and  each  summer  vacation  as  a  refreshing  inter- 
lude, and  to  the  last  term  of  his  school-years  as  the  last 
act  of  the  tragedy ;  biit  in  cities  the  end  of  the  school- 
room bondage  is  too  often  the  beginning  of  the  endless 
slavery  which  awaits  the  young  apprentice  of  the  work- 
shops, factories,  and  counting-houses.  In  North  western 
Europe  and  the  Eastern  States  of  North  America, 
eleven  million  human  beings,  a  fourth  of  that  number 
minors,  are  performing  their  daily  toil  in  an  atmosphere 
that  saps  the  vigor  of  their  souls  and  bodies  more  ef- 
fectually than  a  diet  of  potatoes  and  water  could  do  it 


IN-DOOR  LIFE. 


85 


in  the  same  time.  A  full  third  of  the  cotton-spinners 
of  Lancashire  and  Massachusetts  are  girls  and  boys  in 
their  teens  1  They  do  not  complain  to  a  stranger,  un- 
less he  should  be  able  to  interpret  the  language  of  their 
haggard  faces  and  weary  eyes;  but  no  one  who  has 
fathomed  the  depth  of  their  misery  will  charge  me  with 
exaggeration  if  I  say  that,  to  the  vast  majority  of  the 
unfortunates,  loss  of  feeling  and  of  reason  would  be  a 
blessing.  What  do  they  feel  but  unsatisfied  hunger  in 
a  hundred  forms,  and  what  can  reason  tell  them  but 
that  they  have  been  defrauded  of  their  birthright  to 
happiness ;  that  not  only  their  opportunity  but  their  ca- 
pacity for  enjoyment  is  ebbing  away ;  and  that,  what- 
ever after-years  may  bring,  their  life  has  been  robbed  as 
a  day  of  its  morning  or  a  year  of  its  spring-time  ? 

The  opium-habit  may  be  acquired  in  less  than  half 
a  year,  and  the  natural  repugnance  to  alcohol  and  to- 
bacco is  generally  overcome  after  four  or  five  trials ; 
but  the  factory-slave  has  to  pass  through  ten  or  fifteen 
years  of  continual  struggle  against  his  physical  con- 
science, before  the  voice  of  instinct  at  last  becomes  si- 
lent, and  the  painful  longing  for  out-door  life  gives  way 
to  that  anaesthesia  by  which  Nature  palliates  evils  for 
which  she  has  no  remedy.  In  more  advanced  years  the 
habit  becomes  confirmed,  and  we  find  old  habitues  who 
actually  enjoy  the  effluvia  of  their  prisons,  and  dread 
cold  air  and  "  draughts  "  as  they  would  a  messenger  of 
death.  They  avoid  cold  instead  of  impurity,  just  as 
tipplers  on  a  warm  day  imagine  that  they  would  "  catch 
their  death  "  by  a  draught  from  a  cool  fountain,  but 
never  hesitate  to  swallow  the  monstrous  mixtures  of  the 
liquor- vender. 

Eousseau  expresses  a  belief  that  any  man,  who  has 
preserved  his  native  temperance  for  the  first  twenty- 


gg  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

five  years,  will  afterward  be  pretty  nearly  proof  against 
temptation,  because  very  unnatural  habits  can  only  be 
acquired  while  our  tastes  have  the  pliancy  of  immatu- 
rity, and  I  think  the  same  holds  good  of  the  troglodyte- 
habit  :  no  one  who  has  passed  twenty  or  twenty-five 
years  in  open  air  can  be  bribed  very  easily  to  exchange 
oxygen  for  miasma. 

Shamyl-ben-Haddin,  the  Circassian  hero  chieftain, 
who  was  captured  by  the  Russians  in  the  winter  of 
1864,  was  carried  to  Novgorod  and  imprisoned  in  an 
apartment  of  the  city  armory,  which  resembled  a  com- 
fortable bed-chamber  rather  than  a  dungeon,  and  was 
otherwise  treated  with  more  kindness  than  the  Russians 
are  wont  to  show  their  prisoners,  as  the  Government 
hoped  to  use  his  influence  for  political  purposes.  But 
a  week  after  his  arrival  in  Novgorod  the  captive  mount- 
aineer demanded  an  interview  with  the  commander  of 
the  armory,  and  offered  to  resign  his  liberal  rations  and 
subsist  on  bread  and  cabbage-soup  like  the  private  sol- 
diers of  his  guard,  and  also  to  surrender  some  valuables 
he  had  concealed  on  his  person,  on  condition  that  they 
would  permit  him  to  sleep  in  open  air.  One  more 
week  of  such  nausea  and  headache  as  the  confinement 
in  a  closed  room  had  caused  him  would  force  him  to 
commit  suicide,  he  said,  and,  if  his  request  was  refused, 
God  would  charge  the  guilt  of  the  deed  on  his  torment- 
ors. After  taking  due  precautions  against  all  possibil- 
ity of  escape,  they  permitted  him  to  sleep  on  the  plat- 
form in  front  of  the  guard-house ;  and  Colonel  Darapski, 
the  commander  of  the  city, -informed  his  government 
in  the  following  spring  that  the  health  and  general  be- 
havior of  his  prisoner  were  excellent,  but  he  had  slept 
in  open  air  every  one  of  the  last  hundred  nights,  with 
no  other  covering  but  his  own  worn-out  mantle,  and  a 


IN-DOOR  LIFE.  87 

woolen  cap  lie  had  purchased  from  a  soldier  of  the 
guard  to  keep  his  turban  from  getting  soiled  by  mud 
and  rain. 

General  Sam  Houston,  the  liberator  of  Texas,  who 
had  exiled  himself  from  his  native  State  in  early  man- 
hood, and  passed  long  years  not  as  a  captive,  but  as  a 
voluntary  companion  of  the  Cherokee  Indians,  was 
ever  afterward  unable  to  prolong  his  presence  in  a 
crowded  hall  or  ill-ventilated  room  beyond  ten  or 
twelve  minutes,  and  described  his  sensation  on  enter- 
ing such  a  locality  as  one  of  "  uneasiness,  increasing  to 
positive  alarm,  such  as  a  mouse  may  be  supposed  to 
feel  under  an  air-pump." 

The  cause  of  this  uneasiness  is  less  mysterious  than 
our  nature's  wonderful  power  of  adaptation  that  can 
help  us  ever  to  overcome  it.  The  elementary  changes 
in  the  human  body  are  going  on  with  such  rapidity 
that  the  waste  of  tissue  and  organic  fluids  is  only  par- 
tially retrieved  by  the  digestible  part  of  the  substances 
which  we  feed  to  the  abdominal  department  of  our  lab- 
oratory twice  or  thrice  in  twenty-four  hours.  The  dif- 
ference is  made  up  by  the  labors  of  the  upper  or 
pectoral  department,  which  renews  its  supply  of  raw 
material  independently,  or  even  in  spite  of  our  will, 
twenty  times  per  minute,  or  70,000  times  in  twenty- 
four  hours  !  With  every  breath  we  draw  we  take  into 
our  lungs  about  one  pint  of  air,  so  that  the  quantity  of 
gaseous  food  thus  consumed  by  the  body  amounts  in  a 
day  to  675  cubic  feet.  The  truth,  then,  is  that  eating 
and  drinking  may  be  considered  as  secondary  or  sup- 
plementary functions  in  the  complicated  process  per- 
formed by  that  living  engine  called  the  animal  body, 
while  the  more  important  task  falls  to  tlie  share  of  the 
lungs.  The  stomach  may  suspend  its  labors  entirely 


88  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

for  twenty-four  hours  without  serious  detriment  to  the 
system,  and  for  two  or  three  days  without  endangering 
life,  while  the  work  of  respiration  can  not  be  inter- 
rupted for  six  minutes  without  fatal  consequences. 

The  first  object  of  respiration  is  to  introduce  ele- 
ments needed  in  the  preparation  of  blood,  the  second 
to  remove  gaseous  carbon  and  other  secretions  of  the 
air-cells.  The  deleterious  consequences,  therefore,  of 
breathing  the  same  air  over  and  over  again  arise  not 
only  from  the  exhaustion  of  oxygen,  but  also  from  the 
circumstance  that  the  confined  atmosphere  may  become 
azotized  or  surcharged  with  carbon  to  the  limit  of  its 
absorbing  powers,  just  as  water,  after  being  saturated 
with  certain  percents  of  salt  or  sugar,  refuses  to  dis- 
solve any  further  additions.  The  act  of  reinspiring 
air,  which  has  already  been  subjected  to  the  process  of 
pulmonary  digestion,  is  thus  precisely  analogous  to  the 
act  of  a  famished  animal  devouring  its  own  faeces,  and 
if  performed  habitually  can  not  fail  to  be  attended  with 
equally  ruinous  consequences.  Corruption  of  the  ali- 
mentary ducts  would  surely  ensue  in  the  latter  (sup- 
posed) case,  putrefaction  of  the  respiratory  organs  does 
follow  in  the  other.  "Working-men  employed  in  locali- 
ties whose  azotized  atmosphere  is  loaded  besides  with 
particles  of  flying  cotton-fiber,  metallic  dust,  or  fatty 
vapors,  inspire  substances  which  are  just  as  indigestible 
to  their  lungs  as  mercury  and  alcohol  are  to  their  stom- 
achs, and  like  these  cause  a  rapid  deterioration  of  the 
tissues  in  proximity  to  which  they  are  deposited. 

The  only  wonder,  then,  is  how  Nature  can  resist 
outrages  of  this  kind  for  any  length  of  time  ;  and  it  is 
a  curious  reflection  to  think  what  amounts  of  hardship 
of  the  primitive  sort,  such  as  hunger,  fatigue,  cold, 
heat,  deprivation  of  sleep,  etc.,  a  healthy  savage  might 


IN-DOOR  LIFE.  89 

accustom  himself  to,  if  he  tried  as  hard  as  the  poor 
children  of  civilization  try  to  wean  themselves  from 
their  hunger  after  life-air  ! 

Can  necessity  be — we  will  not  say  an  excuse,  but — 
an  explanation  of  such  systematic  self -ruin  ?  We  must 
utterly  refuse  to  believe  it.  Wherever  men  barter  life 
for  bread,  there  is  a  violent  presumption  that  they  do 
not  know  what  they  are  doing ;  for  against  recognized 
health- destroyers  even  the  poorest  of  the  poor  will  rebel 
with  a  promptitude  that  vindicates  the  dignity  of  human 
nature  under  the  most  abject  conditions  of  bondage. 
Let  a  railroad  contractor  be  caught  in  the  trick  of  adul- 
terating his  flour  with  chalk  or  his  sugar  with  alum,  and 
see  how  quickly  his  navvies  will  leave  him  ;  or  observe 
how  firmly  reckless  Jack  Tar  insists  on  his  anti-scorbutic 
raspberry-vinegar !  Miners  have  left  a  colliery  en  masse, 
because  the  owner  shirked  his  duty  of  providing  safety- 
lamps  ;  and  the  very  negro  slaves  of  a  South  Carolina 
plantation  attempted  the  life  of  their  master,  who 
stinted  their  allowance  of  quinine  brandy  which  his 
father  had  issued  them  to  counteract  the  miasmatic 
tendencies  of  the  rice-swamp. 

Neither  is  it  possible  to  suppose  that  want  of  hy- 
gienic education  can  be  the  origin  of  such  ignorance ; 
for  Nature  does  not  wait  for  the  scientist  to  inform  her 
children  on  questions  of  such  importance.  All  normal 
things  are  good,  all  evil  is  abnormal ;  vice  is  a  conse- 
quence of  ignorance  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  a  result  of 
perverse  education,  and  the  troglodyte-habit  is  the  di- 
rect offspring  of  mediaeval  monachism.  Until  after 
the  fourth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  habitual  in- 
door life  between  closed  walls  was  known  only  as  the 
worst  form  of  punishment.  Thougli  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  were  familiar  with  the  manufacture  of  glass, 


90  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

they  never  used  it  to  obstruct  their  windows ;  in  all  the 
temples,  palaces,  and  dwelling-houses  of  antiquity,  the 
apertures  provided  to  admit  light  admitted  fresh  air  at 
the  same  time.  The  tuguria  of  the  Roman  peasants 
were  simply  arbors;  and  the  domiciles  of  our  hardy 
Saxon  forefathers  resembled  the  log-cabins  of  Eastern 
Tennessee — rough-hewed  logs  laid  crosswise,  with  lib- 
eral interspaces  that  serve  as  windows  on  all  sides 
except  that  opposed  to  the  prevailing  wind,  north  or 
northwest,  where  they  are  stopped  with  moss. 

Men  had  to  be  utterly  divorced  from  Nature  before 
they  could  prefer  the  hot  stench  of  their  dungeons  to 
the  cool  breezes  of  heaven,  but  our  system  of  ethics  has 
proved  itself  equal  to  the  task.  For  eighteen  hundred 
years  our  spiritual  guides  have  taught  us  to  consider 
Nature  and  everything  natural  as  wholly  evil,  and  to 
substitute  therefor  the  supernatural  and  the  artificial,  in 
physical  as  well  as  in  moral  life.  The  natural  sciences 
of  antiquity  they  superseded  by  the  artificial  dogma, 
suppressed  investigation  to  foster  belief,  substituted  love 
of  death  for  love  of  life,  celibacy  for  marriage,  the  twi- 
light of  their  gloomy  vaults  for  the  sunshine  of  the  Chal- 
dean mountains,  and  their  dull  religious  "  exercises  " 
for  the  joyous  games  of  the  palaestra.  This  system 
taught  us  that  the  love  of  sport  and  out-door  pastimes 
is  wicked,  that  the  flesh  has  to  be  "  crucified  "  and  the 
buoyant  spirit  crushed  to  make  it  acceptable  to  God ; 
that  all  earthly  joys  are  vain  ;  nay,  that  the  earth  itself 
is  a  vale  of  tears,  and  the  heaven  of  the  Hebrew  fanatic 
our  proper  home. 

"  The  monastic  recluse,"  says  Ulric  Hutten,  "  closes 
every  aperture  of  his  narrow  cell  on  his  return  from 
midnight  prayers,  for  fear  that  the  nightingale's  song 
might  intrude  upon  his  devotions,  or  the  morning  wind 


IN-DOOR  LIFE. 


91 


visit  him  with  the  fragrance  and  the  greeting  of  the  hill 
forests,  and  divert  his  mind  to  earthly  things  from 
things  spiritual.  He  dreads  a  devil  wherever  the  Nature- 
loving  Greeks  worshiped  a  God."  These  narrow  cells, 
the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition,  the  churches  whose 
painted  windows  excluded  not  only  the  air  but  the  very 
light  of  heaven,  the  prison-like  convent-schools,  and  the 
general  control  exercised  by  the  Christian  priests  over 
the  domestic  life  of  their  parishioners,  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  a  habit  which,  like  everything  unhealthy,  became 
a  second  nature  in  old  habitues,  and  gave  birth  to  that 
brood  of  absurd  chimeras  which,  under  the  name  of 
"  salutary  precautions,"  inspire  us  with  fear  of  the  night 
air,  of  "  cold  draughts,"  of  morning  dews,  and  of  March 
winds. 

I  have  often  thought  that  mistrust  in  our  instincts 
would  be  the  most  appropriate  word  for  a  root  of  evil 
which  has  produced  a  more  plentiful  crop  of  misery  in 
modern  times  than  all  the  sensual  excesses  and  ferocious 
passions  of  our  forefathers  taken  together.  What  a 
dismal  ignorance  of  the  symbolic  language  by  which 
Mature  expresses  her  will  is  implied  by  the  idea  that  the 
sweet  breath  of  the  summer  night  which  addresses  itself 
to  our  senses  like  a  blessing  from  heaven  could  be  in- 
jurious !  Yet  nine  out  of  ten  guests  in  an  overheated 
ball-room  or  travelers  in  a  crowded  stage-coach  will  pro- 
test if  one  of  their  number  ventures  to  open  a  window 
after  sundown,  no  matter  how  glorious  the  night  or 
how  oppressive  the  effluvia  of  the  closed  apartment. 
Pious  men  they  may  be,  and  most  anxious  to  distinguish 
good  from  evil,  but  they  never  suspect  that  God's  reve- 
lations are  written  in  another  language  than  that  of  the 
Hebrew  dogmatist.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  men  suppress 
their  instincts  instead  of  their  artificial  cravings.  If  we 


92  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

have  learned  to  interpret  the  fact  that  a  child  whose 
mind  is  not  yet  biased  by  any  hearsays  is  sure  to  prefer 
pure  and  cold  air  to  the  miasmatic  "  comfort  "  of  a  close 
room,  the  troglodyte-habit  will  disappear,  as  intemper- 
ance will  vanish  if  we  recognize  the  significance  of  that 
other  fact — that  to  every  beginner  the  taste  of  alcohol  is 
repulsive,  and  that  only  the  tenth  or  twelfth  dosis  of 
the  obnoxious  substance  begins  to  be  relished ;  just  as 
the  Eussian  stage-conductor  relishes  the  atmosphere  of 
his  ambulant  dungeon,  whatever  may  have  been  his 
feelings  of  horror  on  the  first  trip. 

If  ever  we  recognize  a  truth  which  was  familiar 
enough  to  the  ancients,  but  seems  to  have  been  forgot- 
ten for  the  last  ten  or  twelve  centuries,  viz.,  that  our 
noses  were  given  us  for  some  practical  purpose,  the 
architecture  of  our  dwellings,  our  factories,  -school- 
rooms, and  places  of  worship,  will  be  speedily  corrected  ; 
and  even  the  builder  of  an  immigrant-ship  will  find  a 
way  to  modify  that  floating  Black  Hole  of  Calcutta 
called  the  steerage.  Prisons,  too,  will  be  modeled  after 
another  plan.  Our  right  to  diet  our  criminals  on  the 
ineffable  mixture  of  odors  which  they  are  now  obliged 
to  accept  as  air  depends  on  the  settlement  of  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  object  of  punishment  is  reform  or  re- 
venge ?  In  the  latter  case  the  means  answer  the  purpose 
with  a  vengeance  indeed :  in  the  first  case  there  is  no 
more  excuse  for  saturating  the  lungs  of  a  prisoner  with 
the  seeds  of  tuberculosis  than  there  would  be  for  feed- 
ing him  on  trichinae  or  inoculating  him  with  the  leprosy- 
virus. 

In  such  countries  as  Italy  and  Mexico,  where  the 
plurality  of  the  population  pass  the  daylight  hours  in 
open  air,  unventilated  bedrooms  are  almost  the  only 
cause  of  tubercular  diseases ;  but  in  the  north,  where 


IX-DOOR  LIFE. 


93 


children  have  to  be  nursed  like  exotic  birds,  the  chief 
defects  of  our  domestic  arrangements  may  be  classed 
under  three  heads :  impure  air,  want  of  sunshine,  and 
want  of  room  for  exercise.  The  beau-ideal  of  a  healthy 
house  would  be  a  well-plastered  stone  building  on  some 
eminence,  remote  from  swamps  and  stagnant  creeks, 
but  surrounded  by  sunny  slopes  available  for  play- 
grounds ;  spring  or  well  water ;  out-door  cellar,  kitchen 
in  an  out-house,  or  at  least  not  directly  below  the  sit- 
ting and  sleeping  rooms ;  high  ceilings,  wainscots,  or 
wall-paper  of  innocuous  colors;  deep  windows,  with 
projecting  mullions  to  admit  the  air  and  exclude  the 
rain ;  an  airy  veranda,  and  no  shade-trees  on  the  east 
and  west  side,  as  sunlight  is  most  needed  in  the  morn- 
ings and  evenings.  Children  can  not  thrive  in  dark 
back  rboms,  and  in  the  first  eight  years  of  their  lives 
should  have  all  the  exercise  they  want.  The  country- 
men of  Dr.  Frobel  are  ahead  in  this  respect,  and  the 
best-arranged  nursery  I  ever  saw  was  the  Findelrsiminer 
("  foundling-ward  ")  in  the  convent  of  the  Ursuline  nuns 
near  Wiirzburg,  Germany.  The  landed  estate  of  the 
convent  having  been  sequestrated,  their  department  of 
charitable  institutions  had  been  reorganized  on  a  more 
economical  basis,  and  the  poor  nuns  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  apologize  for  the  ingenious  simplicity  of  their 
Zimmer,  whose  plan  had  been  suggested  chiefly  by  the 
necessity  of  dispensing  with  hired  help.  The  room  was 
about  forty  feet  square,  facing  south  and  west,  with 
three  large  windows  on  each  side.  These  windows  and 
the  fire-place  were  barred  with  net  screens,  soft  to  the 
touch,  but  securely  fastened,  and  strong  enough  to  stop 
anything  from  a  foot-ball  to  a  forty-pound  baby.  The 
floor  was  carpeted  with  rugs,  covered  with  a  sort  of 
coarse  sheeting  to  prevent  dust.  From  the  floor  to  tlu- 


94;  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

height  of  the  window-sills  the  walls  were  padded  all 
round  with  old  blankets,  secured  with  muffled  nails,  and 
stuffed  with  something  that  felt  like  moss  or 'cow's  hair. 
The  only  piece  of  furniture  was  a  cushioned  divan  in 
the  corner  next  to  the  fire-place ;  but  the  floor  was  cov- 
ered with  playthings  and  movable  nondescripts,  balls  of 
all  sizes,  and  a  big  Walze,  a  sort  of  wooden  cylinder, 
muffled  up  with  quilts  and  cotton.  From  the  center  of 
the  ceiling  depended  a  hand-swing,  two  rings  just  low 
enough  to  be  within  reach  of  a  youngster  standing  on 
tiptoe,  the  "original  sitting  swing  having  been  removed 
as  liable  to  be  used  as  a  catapult  in  a  general  row. 
Above  the  windows,  out  of  reach  of  the  boldest  climb- 
er, were  shelves  with  flower-pots,  reseda,  gillyflowers, 
and  wintergreen.  In  this  in-door  Kindergarten,  four- 
teen playmates — twelve  babies,  namely,  and  twt>  pup- 
pies— had  been  turned  loose,  and  seemed  to  celebrate 
existence  as  a  perpetual  circus-game.  They  could  run 
races,  pelt  each  other  with  cotton  balls,  swing  in  a  circle, 
roll  on  the  floor,  and  ride  the  Walze ;  but  the  attempt 
to  hurt  themselves  would  have  baffled  their  combined 
ingenuity.  There  were  no  nurslings,  of  course,  but  all 
mischief-ages  from  three  to  eleven,  wrestling  and  quar- 
reling now  and  then,  but,  as  the  nuns  solemnly  averred, 
never  crying  except  for  causes  that  would  make  the 
puppies  cry — a  squeeze  or  an  inadvertent  kick — all  dis- 
putes being  referred  to  the  umpire,  a  flaxen-haired  girl 
of  eight,  who  often  took  charge  of  the  Ziinmer  from 
morning  till  night. 

The  squalling  of  new-born  children  can  not  be 
helped  ;  puppies  will  whine,  and  young  monkeys  whim- 
per for  the  first  three  or  four  days — it  is  the  novelty  of 
existence  that  bewilders  them — but,  if  babies  of  two  or 
three  years  scream  violently  for  hours  together,  it  gen- 


IN-DOOR  LIFE.  95 

erally  means  that  there  is  something  wrong  about  the 
management.  Indian  babies  never  cry ;  they  are  nei- 
ther swaddled  nor  cradled,  but  crawl  around  freely,  and 
sleep  in  the  dry  grass  or  on  the  fur-covered  floor  of  the 
wigwam.  Continual  rocking  would  make  the  toughest 
sailor  sea-sick.  Tight  swaddling  is  downright  torture ; 
it  would  try  the  patience  of  a  Stoic  to  keep  all  his  limbs 
in  a  constrained  position  for  such  a  length  of  time ;  a 
young  ape  subjected  to  the  same  treatment  would 
scream  from  morning  till  night.  Forty  per  cent  of  all 
children  born  in  certain  manufacturing  districts  of  Bel- 
gium and  Great  Britain  die  before  the  end  of  the  sec- 
ond year.  They  are  swaddled,  of  course;  they  must 
not  crawl  around,  and  bother  people ;  and  "  paregoric" 
does  the  rest :  the  child  cries  for  liberty,  and  receives 
death.  Opiates  are  sold  under  right  pleasant  names 
nowadays,  and  at  popular  prices  in  the  larger  cities ; 
but  a  spoonful  of  arsenic  would  be  a  shorter  and  a  kind- 
er remedy. 

Not  every  family  has  room  and  the  means  to  con- 
struct a  model  nursery,  but  the  poorest  could  spare  a 
few  square  feet  of  space  in  some  sunny  corner,  and, 
with  old  quilts  and  rugs,  make  it  baby-proof  enough  for 
all  probable  emergencies.  Then  furnish  a  few  play- 
things and  trust  the  rest  to  nature.  Man  wants  but 
little  here  below,  and  between  meals  a  pickaninny  will 
content  itself  with  liberty,  light  and  air,  and  a  couple 
of  rag-babies.  As  soon  as  a  child  begins  to  toddle,  it 
should  also  have  an  opportunity  to  exercise  its  arms — a 
grapple-swing,  or  (if  your  ceiling  be  inviolate)  a  rope 
stretched  from  wall  to  wall.  It  is  surprising  how  fast 
the  clumsiest  youngster  begins  to  profit  by  such  a 
chance.  To  the  young  son  of  man  climbing  comes  nat- 
ural enough  to  shock  a  witness  of  anti-Darwinian  pro- 


96  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

clivities.  The  development  of  the  shoulder-muscles 
also  tends  to  invigorate  the  chest,  and  a  fifty-cent 
hand-swing  may  save  many  dollars'  worth  of  cough- 
medicine. 

The  progressive  development  of  the  motory  organs 
prompts  their  frequent  exercise,  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  gratification  of  this  instinct  constitutes  the  chief 
element  of  that  physical  beatitude  which  makes  the  age 
of  childhood  the  spring-time  of  every  life;  and  it  is 
equally  certain  that  compulsive  physical  inactivity  in- 
flicts on  a  healthy  child  an  amount  of  wretchedness 
which  no  prospective  advantages  can  possibly  repay. 
It  is  hard  enough  that  so  large  a  portion  of  the  human 
race  have  to  rear  their  young  in  a  latitude  which  half 
the  year  confines  them  to  the  freedom  of  their  four 
walls ;  but  it  is  harder  that  even  this  limited  freedom 
should  be  curtailed  by  so  many  unnecessary  restraints. 
I  wish  every  houseful  of  children  had  a  rough-and-tum- 
ble room,  some  out-of-the-way  place  where  the  cadets 
could  romp,  roll,  and  jump  to  their  hearts'  content.  It 
need  not  be  a  heated  room  nor  even  an  in-door  place,  as 
long  as  it  has  anything  like  a  roof  to  it ;  children  are 
naturally  hardy,  as  they  are  naturally  truthful :  effemi- 
nacy and  hypocrisy  are  twin  daughters  of  our  pious 
civilization.  A  wood-shed  will  do,  or  a  lumber-room 
with  old  mattresses  and  hiding-places.  "Well-to-do  par- 
ents might  add  some  gymnastic  apparatus,  and  for  big 
boys  a  carpenter's  table  with  an  assortment  of  tools ; 
mechanical  dexterity  may  prove  useful  in  many  ways, 
and  every  normal  boy  has  something  of  that  instinct 
which  phrenologists  call  constructiveness,  and  which 
makes  the  use  of  such  implements  a  pleasure  rather 
than  a  task.  But,  for  the  youngsters,  the  rough-and- 
tumble  play  is  the  main  thing ;  it  will  strengthen  their 


IN-DOOR  LIFE.  97 

limbs,  lungs,  and  livers,  and  prevent  more  ailments 
than  all  the  pills  in  Herrick's  list  of  patent  medicines. 
Moreover,  it  will  keep  them  quiet  where  other  children 
are  sure  to  be  fidgety — in  the  parlor  and  at  school. 
Every  school-teacher  knows  that  young  ruralists  are 
more  sedate  than  city  boys ;  out-door  work  has  given 
them  all  the  exercise  they  need ;  they  can  take  it  easy 
while  their  comrades  are  fretting  under  an  irksome  re- 
straint. After  an  hour  or  two  of  German  gymnastics, 
combined  with  wood-chopping  and  water-carrying,  if 
you  like,  the  wildest  boy  will  prefer  a  chair  to  a  flying 
trapeze ;  for,  if  the  tonic  development  of  the  organism 
is  not  grossly  neglected,  sedentary  employments  per  se 
are  by  no  means  contrary  to  nature ;  in  the  intervals  of 
their  play,  the  young  of  frolicsome  animals  will  sit  mo- 
tionless for  hours ;  even  kittens  and  young  monkeys ; 
not  to  mention  colts  which  have  off-days,  when  they 
won't  stir  a  foot  if  they  can  help  it. 

It  would  be  a  great  improvement  on  our  present 
system  of  school-education,  if  children  could  learn  the 
rudiments  at  home  and  pass  their  infancy,  the  first  eight 
or  ten  years,  at  least,  under  the  immediate  supervision 
of  their  parents ;  a  transition-period  of  three  or  four 
years  of  home  studies  would  help  them  to  steer  clear  of 
many  moral  and  physiological  cliffs.  It  is  always  the 
best  preparatory  school ;  only  a  private  teacher  has  time 
and  patience  to  interest  a  pupil  in  the  dry  principia  of 
every  science ;  but  a  still  greater  advantage  is  his  inde- 
pendence of  fixed  methods  and  fixed  hours.  As  a  gen- 
eral rule,  the  forenoon  is  the  best  time  for  studies,  and 
the  airiest  room  in  the  house  the  best  locality.  Pure 
air  has  a  wonderful  effect  on  the  clearness  of  our  cere- 
bral functions ;  the  half -suffocating  atmosphere  of  the 
average  school-room  is  as  stupefying  as  the  influence  of 

5 


98 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 


a  half-intoxicating  drink.  Heat  aggravates  the  offen- 
siveness  of  foul  air ;  but  in  a  well-ventilated  room  the 
degree  of  temperature  is  comparatively  unimportant. 
As  it  would  be  inconvenient  to  load  ourselves  with 
blankets  in  day-time,  less  than  50°  Fahr.  would  make 
sedentary  occupations  rather  uncomfortable,  and  more 
than  80°  would  become  oppressive  in  a  close  apartment ; 
but  between  these  extremes  we  may  safely  suit  our  con- 
venience. Perfectly  pure  or  perfumed  air  may  be  very 
warm  and  still  very  pleasant,  as  all  know  who  have  en- 
tered a  conservatory  or  a  tidy  baker's  shop  on  a  cold 
winter  day. 

In  large  town  schools,  where  hundreds  of  children 
have  to  breathe  the  same  air,  I  would  advise  a  change 
of  rooms  from  hour  to  hour,  and  a  thorough  renovation 
of  the  vitiated  atmosphere  by  opening  every  window 
and  every  door,  and  keeping  up  a  rousing  fire.  The 
air-currents  could  be  re-enforced  by  mechanical  means 
— canvas-floppers  or  revolving  fans — and  fumigation 
would  greatly  aid  the  good  work.  The  South  Euro- 
pean druggists  sell  various  kinds  of  frankincense  that 
can  be  burned  on  a  pan  or  a  common  stove,  and  will 
fill  a  large  church  with  odors  more  or  less  Sabaean,  ac- 
cording to  price — ten  cents'  worth  a  day  would  be 
enough  to  beatify  a  whole  town  school ;  Mohammed, 
the  man  of  God,  included  perfume  among  the  three 
greatest  blessings  of  human  life.  Young  children 
ought  to  have  a  recess  after  every  lesson,  and  should 
not  be  required  to  sit  rigidly  quiet.  The  best  writing- 
stand  for  children  is  Schreber's  "telescope-desk,"  a 
box-like  contrivance,  with  a  movable  top  that  can  be 
lowered  or  raised  to  suit  the  convenience  of  sitting  or 
standing  writers.  In  a  latitude  where  the  weather  so 
often  precludes  the  possibility  of  out-door  recreations, 


IN-DOOR  LIFE. 


99 


every  school-house  should  have  a  recess-room,  and  every 
town  school  an  in-door  gymnasium. 

Fireside  comforts  are  almost  inseparable  from  the 
idea  of  an  open  fire-place,  and  from  an  hygienic  stand- 
point, too,  the  old-fashioned  chimney,  or  an  open  grate, 
is  far  superior  to  a  closed  stove.    But  it  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that  the  operation  of  the  chimney-draught  alone 
is  insufficient  to  correct  the  vitiated  air  of  a  small  room, 
it  merely  creates  an  outward  current.     An  open  win- 
dow completes  the  renovating  process ;  in  cold  weather 
a  few  minutes  are  sufficient  to  revitalize  the  in-door 
atmosphere  for  a  couple  of  hours.     Only  the  blindest 
prejudice  can  deny  the  pleasant  effect  of  such  an  influx 
of  life-air ;  it  revives  the  azotized  lungs  as  a  draught  of 
cool  water  refreshes  the   parched  palate.     Colds  arc 
never  taken  in  that  way.     The  veiy  name  is  a  mis- 
leading misnomer — infection  or  influenza  would  be  the 
right  word.     Long  exposure  to  a  freezing  storm,  in 
certain  cases,  induces  a  true  pleuritic  fever,  a  very  rare 
affection,  and  entirely  different  from  the  only  too  fa- 
miliar catarrh.     What  we  call  a  cold  (refroidissement, 
ErJcaltung)  is  caused  by  the  influence  of  impure  air,  or 
dust,  on  the  sensitive  tissue  of  our  respiratory  organs ; 
subsequent  exposure  to  the  open  air  merely  initiates 
the  crisis  of  the  disorder,  the  discharge  of  the  accumu- 
lated mucus  through  the  nose  or  throat.     Fresh  air  is 
here  only  the  proximate  cause,  as  in  toothache,  or  in 
those  paroxysms  of  retching  following  upon  the  first 
respiration  of  a  half -drowned  person.     If  we  postpone 
the  crisis  by  persistently  avoiding  the  open  air,  the 
unrespirable  matter,  instead  of  being  discharged,  will 
be  deposited  in  the  tissue  of  the  lungs  in  the  form  of 
tubercles. 

In  the  chapter  on  Diet  I  have  stated  the  physiolog- 


100  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

ical  objections  to  a  late  supper,  and  I  will  here  mention 
an  additional  reason  why  the  afternoon  meal  should  be 
the  last :  It  would  give  an  overworked  mother  a  chance 
to  close  the  kitchen-door  at  six  o'clock,  and  devote  the 
rest  of  the  evening  to  her  family.  Domestic  habits 
depend  greatly  upon  the  employment  of  the  long  win- 
ter evenings  that  have  to  be  passed  in-doors  somewhere ; 
whether  at  home  or — elsewhere,  depends  upon  home- 
comforts  rather  than  upon  home-missions ;  a  treatise  on 
the  art  of  making  the  chimney-corner  attractive  would 
be  the  most  effective  temperance  lecture.  Fredrika 
Bremer  recommends  fairy  stories  ;  in  a  North  Ameri- 
can city  Scheherezade  would  probably  avail  herself  of 
the  circulating  library,  and  a  fascinating  story-book  is, 
indeed,  an  excellent  substitute  for  the  old-fashioned 
remedies  against  gadding.  Good  books,  flowers,  and 
music,  combined  with  pleasant  conversation  and  a 
cheerful  fire,  would  neutralize  the  attractions  of  the 
average  "  saloon."  Playthings  and  social  games,  too, 
would  help  to  compensate  the  youngsters  for  the  want 
of  out-of-door  sports,  and  where  they  have  a  room  to 
themselves  I  would  suggest  the  introduction  of  some 
entertaining  pet,  a  raccoon  or  a  tame  squirrel-monkey. 
Let  the  boys  have  some  fun — provide  pastimes ;  it  is 
ennui  rather  than  natural  perversity  that  leads  our 
young  men  to  the  rum-shop. 

The  end  of  the  day  is  the  best  time  for  a  sponge- 
bath;  a  sponge  and  a  coarse  towel  have  often  cured 
insomnia  where  diacodium  failed.  A  bucketful  of 
tepid  water  will  do  for  ordinary  purposes ;  daily  cold 
shower-baths  in  winter-time  are  as  preposterous  as  hot 
drinks  in  the  dog-days.  Russian  baths  and  ice-water 
cures  owe  their  repute  to  the  same  popular  delusion 
that  ascribes  miraculous  virtues  to  nauseating  drugs — 


IN-DOOR  LIFE. 

the  mistrust  of  our  natural  instincts,  culminating  in  the 
idea  that  all  natural  things  must  be  injurious  to  man, 
and  that  the  efficacy  of  a  remedy  depends  on  the  degree 
of  its  repulsiveness.  Ninety-nine  boys  in  a  hundred 
would  rather  take  the  bitterest  medicine  than  a  cold 
bath  in  mid-winter.  If  we  leave  children  and  animals 
to  the  guidance  of  their  instincts  they  will  beome  am- 
phibious in  the  dog-days,  and  quench  their  thirst  at  the 
coldest  spring  without  fear  of  injurious  consequences  ; 
but  in  winter-time  even  wild  beasts  avoid  immersion 
with  an  instinctive  dread.  A  Canadian  bear  will  make 
a  wide  circuit,  or  pick  his  way  over  the  floes,  rather 
than  swim  a  lake  in  cold  weather.  Baptist  mission- 
aries do  not  report  many  revivals  before  June.  Warm 
springs,  on  the  other  hand,  attract  all  the  birds  and 
beasts  that  stay  with  us  in  winter-time ;  the  hot  spas 
of  Rockport,  Arkansas,  are  visited  nightly  by  raccoons 
and  foxes  in  spite  of  all  torch-light  hunts ;  and  Hax- 
thausen  tells  us  that  in  hard  winters  the  thermse  of 
Paetigorsk,  in  the  eastern  Caucasus,  attract  deer  and 
wild-hogs  from  the  distant  Terek  Valley.  I  know  the 
claims  of  the  hydropathic  school,  and  the  arguments 
pro  and  con,  but  the  main  points  of  the  controversy 
still  hinge  upon  the  issue  between  Nature's  testimony 
and  Dr.  Priessnitz's. 

Our  beds  are  our  night-clothes,  and  ought  to  be 
kept  as  clean  as  our  shirts  and  coats.  Woolen  blankets 
are  healthier  than  quilts ;  put  a  heavy  United  States 
army  blanket  over  a  kettle  full  of  hot  water  and  see 
how  fast  the  steam  makes  its  way  through  the  weft ;  a 
quilt  would  stop  it  like  an  iron  lid,  and  thus  tends  to 
check  the  exhalation  of  the  human  body.  In  order  to 
disinfect  a  quilt  you  have  first  to  loosen  the  pressed 
cotton ;  a  woolen  blanket  can  be  steamed  and  dried  in 


102  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

a  couple  of  hours.  For  similar  reasons  a  straw  tick  is 
better  than  a  horse-hair  mattress,  though  a  woven-wire 
mattress  is  perhaps  preferable  to  both.  Feather-beds 
are  a  recognized  nuisance.  Children  over  ten  years 
should  sleep  alone,  or  at  least  under  separate  blankets, 
if  the  bedsteads  do  not  reach  around. 

If  you  would  preserve  your  children  from  wasting 
diseases,  do  not  stint  them  in  their  sleep ;  chlorotic  girls, 
especially,  and  weakly  babies  need  all  the  rest  they  can 
get.  If  they  are  drowsy  in  the  morning,  let  them  sleep  ; 
it  will  do  them  more  good  than  stimulants  and  tonic 
sirups.  For  school-children  in  their  teens,  eight  hours  of 
quiet  sleep  is  generally  enough,  but  do  not  restrict  them 
to  fixed  hours ;  in  midsummer  there  should  be  a  siesta- 
corner  in  every  house,  a  lounge  or  an  old  mattress  in  the 
coolest  nook  of  the  hall,  or  a  hammock  in  the  shade  of 
the  porch,  where  the  little  ones  can  pass  the  sleep-inviting 
afternoons.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  send  them  to  bed  at 
the  very  time  when  all  nature  awakens  from  the  torpid 
influence  of  the  day-star ;  sleep  in  the  atmosphere  of  a 
stifling  bedroom  would  bring  no  rest  and  no  pleasant 
dreams.  But  an  hour  after  sunset  there  will  be  a 
change ;  the  night-wind  rises  and  the  fainting  land  re- 
vives ;  cool  air  is  a  febrifuge  and  Nature's  remedy  for 
the  dyspeptic  influences  of  a  sultry  day.  Open  every 
window,  and  let  your  children  share  the  luxury  of  the 
last  evening  hour ;  after  breathing  the  fresh  night-air 
for  a  while  they  will  sleep  in  peace. 


CHAPTER  III. 
OUT-DOOR  LIFE. 

"  Disease  is  a  hot-house  plant."— HALLEK. 

EVERY  disease  is  a  protest  of  Nature  against  an  act- 
ive or  passive  violation  of  her  laws.  But  that  protest 
follows  rarely  upon  a  first  transgression,  never  upon 
trifles ;  and  life-long  sufferings — the  effects  of  an  in- 
curable injury  excepted — generally  imply  that  the  suf 
f  erei^s  mode  of  life  is  habitually  unnatural  in  more  than 
one  respect.  For  there  is  such  a  thing  as  vicarious 
atonement  in  pathology :  a  strict  observance  of  any  one 
of  the  three  or  four  principal  health-laws  rarely  fails  to 
reward  itself  by  a  long  immunity  from  the  consequences 
of  otherwise  evil  habits.  Frugality  thus  counteracts  the 
morbific  tendency  of  indolence ;  perfect  continence  may 
steel  even  a  feeble  constitution  against  the  effects  of 
hunger  and  overwork ;  and,  by  avoiding  the  great  vice 
of  intemperance,  the  Epicureans  atoned  for  a  multitude 
of  minor  sins. 

But  the  surest  of  all  natural  prophylactics  is  active 
exercise  in  the  open  air.  Air  is  a  part  of  our  daily 
food  and  by  far  the  most  important  part.  A  man  can 
live  on  seven  meals  a  week,  and  survive  the  warmest 
summer  day  with  seven  draughts  of  fresh  water,  but 
his  supply  of  gaseous  nourishment  has  to  be  renewed 
at  least  fourteen  thousand  times  in  the  twenty-four 
hours.  Every  breath  we  draw  is  a  draught  of 


104:  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

oxygen,  every  emission  of  breath  is  an  evacuation  of 
gaseous  recrements.  The  purity  of  our  blood  depends 
chiefly  on  the  purity  of  the  air  we  breathe,  for  in  the 
laboratory  of  the  lungs  the  atmospheric  air  is  brought 
into  contact  at  each  respiration  with  the  fluids  of  the 
venous  and  arterial  systems,  which  absorb  it  and  circu- 
late it  through  the  whole  body;  in  other  words,  if  a 
man  breathes  the  vitiated  atmosphere  of  a  factory  all 
day  and  of  a  close  bedroom  all  night,  his  life-blood  is 
tainted  fourteen  thousand  times  in  the  course  of  the 
twenty-four  hours  with  foul  vapors,  dust,  and  noxious 
exhalations.  We  need  not  wonder,  then,  that  ill-venti- 
lated dwellings  aggravate  the  evils  of  so  many  diseases, 
nor  that  pure  air  should  be  almost  a  panacea. 

Out-door  life  is  both  a  remedy  and  a  preventive  of 
all  known  disorders  of  the  respiratory  organs  ;  consump- 
tion, in  all  but  the  last  stage  of  the  deliquium,  can  be 
conquered  by  transferring  the  battle-ground  from  the 
sick-room  to  the  wilderness  of  the  next  mountain-ran jre. 

CD 

Asthma,  catarrh,  and  tubercular  phthisis,  are  unknown 
among  the  nomads  of  the  intertropical  deserts,  as  well 
as  among  the  homeless  hunters  of  our  Northwestern 
Territories.  Hunters  and  herders,  who  breathe  the 
pure  air  of  the  South  American  pampas,  subsist  for 
years  on  a  diet  that  would  endanger  the  life  of  a  city 
dweller  in  a  single  month.  It  has  been  repeatedly  ob- 
served that  individuals  who  attained  to  an  extreme  old 
age  were  generally  poor  peasants  whose  avocations  re- 
quired daily  labor  in  the  open  air,  though  their  habits 
differed  in  almost  every  other  respect;  also  that  the 
average  duration  of  life  in  various  countries  of  the  Old 
World  depends  not  so  much  on  climatic  peculiarities  or 
their  respective  degree  of  culture  as  on  the  chief  occu- 
pation of  the  inhabitants  ;  the  starved  Hindoo  outlives 


OUT-DOOR  LIFE. 


108 


the  well-fed  Parsee  merchant,  the  unkempt  Bulgarian 
enjoys  an  average  longevity  of  forty-two  years  to  the 
west  Austrian  citizen's  thirty-five. 

In  the  cities  of  the  higher  latitudes,  sedentary  occu- 
pations in  a  vitiated  atmosphere  become  often  a  sort  of 
"  second  nature  "  :  artisans  and  shop-keepers,  after  fol- 
lowing their  business  for  a  number  of  years,  frequently 
come  to  dislike  fresh  air,  as  the  convent  slave,  by  an 
analogous  suppression  of  his  better  instincts,  becomes 
averse  to  free  inquiry.  But  this  abnormal  indolence 
seldom  becomes  hereditary — perhaps  never,  if  we  ex- 
cept the  children  of  inebriate  idiots.  The  meoUaeval 
prejudice  against  all  natural  propensities — founded  on 
the  dogma  of  innate  depravity — is,  indeed,  strikingly 
refuted  by  a  young  child's  love  of  out-door  exercise. 
Without  the  mediation  of  supernatural  revelators  or 
preternatural  bugbears,  a  healthy  boy  prefers  even  the 
hardships  of  our  northern  winter  sports  to  the  atmos- 
phere of  a  comfortable  stove-room,  and  in  summer-time 
the  paradise  of  childhood  is  still  a  tree-garden.  No 
domestic  events  of  our  later  years  can  efface  the  im- 
pression of  the  woodland  rambles,  butterfly  hunts,  and 
huckleberry  expeditions  of  our  boyhood :  the  recollec- 
tions of  our  first  out-door  adventures  endure  like  the 
mountains  and  rivers  of  a  promised  land  whose  citks 
have  vanished  for  ever. 

I  have  often  been  asked  at  what  age  infants  can 
first  be  safely  exposed  to  the  influence  of  the  open  air. 
My  answer  is,  On  the  first  warm,  dry  day.  There  is 
no  reason  why  a  new-born  child  should  not  sleep  as 
soundly  under  the  canopy  of  a  garden-tree  on  a  pillow 
of  sun-warmed  hay  as  in  the  atmosphere  of  an  ill-venti- 
lated nursery.  Thousands  of  sickly  nurslings, 
away  in  the  slums  of  our  manufacturing  towns, 


106  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

be  saved  by  an  occasional  sun-bath.  Aside  from  its 
warmth  and  its  chemical  influence  on  vegetal  oxygen, 
sunlight  exercises  upon  certain  organisms  a  vitalizing 
influence  which  science  has  not  yet  quite  explained, 
but  whose  effect  is  illustrated  by  the  contrast  between 
the  weeds  of  a  shady  grove  and  those  of  the  sunlit 
fields,  between  the  rank  grass  of  a  deep  valley  and  the 
aromatic  herbage  of  a  mountain  meadow,  as  well  as  by 
the  peculiar  wholesome  appearance  of  a  "  sunburned  " 
person  or  a  sun-ripened  fruit.  Sunlight  is  too  cheap  to 
become  a  fashionable  remedy,  but  its  hygienic  influence 
can  hardly  be  overrated.  Even  in  the  glorious  climate 
of  the  Latian  hills,  the  Roman  Epicureans  constructed 
special  solaria — glass-covered  turrets — where  they  could 
bask  in  the  full  rays  of  the  winter  sun,  the  balm  of  old 
age,  as  Commella  calls  it ;  and,  on  the  summerless  Isle 
of  Riigen,  Nature  has  taught  the  poor  fishermen  to 
carry  their  bairns  to  the  downs  of  Stubbenkammer, 
whenever  the  Baltic  fogs  alternate  with  a  few  sunny 
days.  Dry  sand  is,  indeed,  an  excellent  medium  of 
solar  caloric.  Children  like  it  instinctively;  most  ba- 
bies are  fond  of  rummaging  in  some  tangible,  yielding 
element.  In  default  of  a  sunny  beach,  get  a  car-load  of 
river-sand,  spread  it  and  expose  it  to  the  sun  for  a 
couple  of  hours,  then  rake  it  together,  mix  it  ad  cap- 
tandum  with  a  bushel  of  pebbles  (good-sized  ones,  lest 
they  might  be  mistaken  for  sugar-plums),  divest  your 
bambino  of  all  superfluous  clothing,  and  let  him  wallow 
—all  afternoon,  if  he  chooses  ;  if  the  surface  of  the  pile 
gets  too  warm,  instinct  will  teach  him  to  dig  down  to 
the  cooler  substrata.  Or  take  him  to  a  meadow  where 
fresh  hay  has  been  piled  up  in  little  stacks ;  climbing 
and  tumbling  will  do  him  more  good  than  lying  mo- 
tionless in  a  narrow  baby-carriage.  The  inventor  of 


OUT-DOOR  LIFE.  107 

the  Kindergarten  recommends  a  grassy  hollow  with 
scattered  playthings,  piles  of  dry  leaves,  etc.  (near  a 
shade-tree  in  midsummer),  where  young  squealers  can 
take  care  of  themselves  for  an  hour  or  two,  and  war- 
rants that  they  will  not  cry,  unless  their  botanic  re- 
searches should  happen  to  acquaint  them  with  the 
properties  of  the  German  horse-nettle.  On  mild  win- 
ter days,  too,  self-motive  babies  ought  to  pass  a  few 
hours  out-of-doors,  even  if  the  ground  be  a  little  wet ; 
a  sunny  nook  on  the  lee-side  of  a  garden-wall  is  a 
healthier  playground  than  the  dusty  floor  of  a  stove- 
room. 

From  the  fourth  to  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  year 
children  should  spend  the  larger  part  of  every  summer 
in  out-door  exercises.  Next  to  a  total  reform  of  our  di- 
etetic habits,  a  general  observance  of  this  rule  would  be 
the  surest  way  to  regain  the  hardiness  and  longevity  of 
our  forefathers.  The  years  of  growth  lay  the  founda- 
tion of  our  bodily  constitution,  and,  under  favorable 
circumstances,  the  human  system,  during  that  period, 
seems  to  accumulate  a  surplus  of  physical  vigor,  which 
in  after-life  will  become  available  as  an  annuity-fund  of 
health  and  happiness.  Education,  like  charity,  ought 
to  begin  at  home ;  in  boarding-colleges,  protectories,  or- 
phan asylums,  etc.,  the  rudiments  should  be  taught  in 
winter  schools.  At  the  price  of  life-long  infirmities 
precocious  erudition  is  too  dear-bought  ;  besides,  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  in  the  years  when  students 
can  take  a  personal  interest  in  their  lessons  they  will 
make  more  progress  in  a  single  month  than  duriiu: 
years  of  involuntary  confinement  in  boy-pens,  as  Dr. 
Salzmann  calls  our  municipal  baby-schools.  The  em- 
ployment of  young  children  in  cotton-factories  is  a  crime 
against  society,  and  ought  to  be  legally  prohibited,  like 


108  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

the  trade  in  Italian  organ-boys  and  Chinese  slave-girls. 
Swiss  artisans,  who  have  passed  their  boyhood  in  the 
mountains,  are  comparatively  proof  against  the  influ- 
ence of  in-door  occupations.  And,  in  the  mean  time, 
out- door  life  need  not  be  a  life  of  idleness.  That  chil- 
dren are  fond  of  play  means  simply  that  they  prefer 
entertaining  employments  to  tedious  ones.  Youngsters 
under  five  years  gambol  instinctively  like  young  puppies, 
in  order  to  acquire  the  art  of  locomotion,  but  soon 
afterward  they  begin  to  play  with  a  conscious  purpose, 
and  do  not  object  to  playing  at  something  profitable  ; 
young  savages  and  peasant-boys  join  in  the  labors  of 
their  parents  with  an  eagerness  that  vindicates  human 
nature  against  the  charge  of  innate  frivolity.  Make 
your  boy  a  Jack-of-all-out-door-trades  before  you  make 
him  a  classic  polyglot,  and,  if  you  destine  him  for  any 
trade  in  special,  let  him  play  with  the  tools  of  that  spe- 
cial trade.  "  The  best  plan  of  education,"  says  Goethe, 
"  is  that  of  the  Hydriotes,  the  Greek  trading-sailors, 
who  take  their  infant  boys  out  to  sea  and  let  them  sport 
around  amid  oakum  and  belaying-pins  before  they  learn 
to  handle  them  with  a  business  purpose.  Such  a  school 
has  graduated  the  heroes  who  with  their  own  hands 
could  grapple  the  fire-boat  to  the  flag-ship  of  the  ene- 
my." 

Even  for  their  children's  sake,  married  men  should 
never  quarter  their  families  in  the  heart  of  a  great  city. 
Not  everybody  can  own  a  farm,  but,  wherever  the  sub- 
urban cottages  adjoin  waste  building-lots  and  dry  ra- 
vines, there  will  be  no  lack  of  opportunities  for  out-door 
pastimes.  Let  the  girls  make  weed-brooms,  and  the 
boys  construct  fortifications,  a  la  Uncle  Toby,  if  they 
can  do  no  better,  and  miss  no  chance  to  send  them  out 
in  the  country  for  a  day  or  two.  Our  town  parks  are 


OUT-DOOR  LIFE. 

too  exclusive  ;  sauntering  between  inviolate  grass-plots 
and  prohibitory  placards  is  dull  work  for  urchins  that 
long  to  commit  horse-play;  but  there  are  few  cities, 
even  on  the  Atlantic  sea-board,  where  the  "  open  coun- 
try " — woods,  fallow  fields,  and  hill-sides — could  not  be 
reached  by  a  two  hours'  walk.  There  let  your  children 
spend  every  sunny  afternoon ;  make  arrangements  with 
your  neighbors,  and  engage  a  guide  if  you  can  not  af- 
ford to  go  yourself ;  teach  the  youngsters  to  collect 
beetles  and  butterflies,  encourage  the  fern  mania  if  your 
girl  has  outgrown  the  buttercup  period,  connive  at  a 
bird's  nest  or  two,  do  anything  to  keep  them  out  of  the 
tenement  dungeons.  If  you  are  blessed  with  a  farm  (or 
a  tolerant  country  cousin),  hay-making,  apple-gathering, 
turkey-herding,  repairing  of  ditches  and  garden-walls, 
will  make  earth  an  Elysium  to  every  normal  child  ; 
never  mind  the  weather;  a  summer  shower,  a  chilly 
morning,  or  a  hot  afternoon  will  not  hurt  a  healthy  boy, 
and  the  girls  will  take  care  of  themselves — or  rather  of 
their  dress — if  the  grass  is  wet.  If  you  send  them  to 
school  before  their  teens,  give  them  at  least  the  full 
benefit  of  their  vacations  and  of  every  free  Saturday. 
In  fall  and  winter  a  day  of  athletic  field-sports  will  ktrp 
a  boy  in  tolerable  health  for  the  rest  of  the  week,  and  a 
vacation  tour  of  six  or  eight  weeks  may  atone  for  many 
months  of  sedentary  life. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  I  have  pointed  out  the 
main  cause  of  catarrhal  affections.  "With  the  exception 
of  deep-seated  breast-coughs,  "  colds  "  may  be  nipped  in 
the  bud  by  a  few  hours  of  hard,  sudorific  work  in  tlio 
open  air.  It  may  be  an  heroic  cure,  requiring  a  good 
deal  of  will-force  in  cold  weather,  but  it  is  an  infallible 
and  the  only  radical  remedy.  In  half  a  day  the  nasal 
ducts  and  the  perspiratory  exhalants  will  throw  off  irri- 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

tating  matters  which  would  defy  the  drag-doctor  for  a 
couple  of  weeks,  or  yield  only  to  exercise  their  influ- 
ence in  another  direction,  for  poison-remedies  merely 
change  the  form  of  a  disease.  But  the  beneficial  effect 

O 

of  out-door  exercise  is  not  limited  to  the  respiratory 
organs :  their  quickened  function  reacts  on  the  diges- 
tive apparatus,  on  the  nervous  system,  and  through 
the  nerves  on  the  mind  ;  true  mental  and  physical 
vigor  in  any  form  can  be  maintained  only  on  a  liberal 
allowance  of  life-air ;  those  who  feed  their  lungs  on  mi- 
asma become  strangers  to  that  exuberant  health  which 
makes  bare  existence  a  luxury.  After  years  of  in-door 
life,  the  victims  of  melancholy,  dyspepsia,  and  dull 
headaches  come  to  accept  their  discomforts  as  the  nor- 
mal condition  of  mankind,  but  upon  the  first  appear- 
ance of  such  disorders  our  insctinct  suggests  the  cause 
and  the  cure  with  an  urgency  which  makes  confinement 
in  the  atmosphere  of  our  northern  dwelling-houses  the 
greatest  affliction  of  childhood.  If  we  reflect  on  the 
fact  that  our  earth  is  surrounded  by  a  respirable  atmos- 
phere of  at  least  eight  hundred  million  cubic  miles,  it 
seems  a  sad  comment  on  the  enlightenment  of  modern 
civilization  that  the  unsatisfied  thirst  after  life-air  should 
inflict  more  misery  upon  millions  of  our  fellow-men 
than  hunger  and  all  the  hardships  of  poverty  combined. 
"  On  the  day  of  judgment,"  says  Jean  Paul,  "  God  will 
perhaps  pardon  you  for  starving  your  children  when 
bread  was  so  dear ;  but,  if  he  should  charge  you  with 
stinting  them  in  his  free  air,  what  answer  shall  you 
make?" 

Perfect  health  depends  upon  a  daily  supply  of  fresh 
air  as  much  as  on  our  daily  bread ;  but  within  certain 
limits  the  human  organism  is  capable  of  adapting  itself 
to  abnormal  circumstances.  A  man  may  accustom  him- 


OUT-DOOR  LIFE. 


Ill 


self  to  devour  his  weekly  allowance  of  solid  food  at  a 
single  meal,  and  in  a  similar  way  the  vitalizing  elements 
of  air  and  sunshine  can  be  hoarded  up— allotropically, 
for  all  we  know— for  days,  weeks,  and  months  in  ad- 
vance. The  Zooloo  hunter  who,  after  a  six  days'  fast, 
gets  a  chance  to  satisfy  the  cravings  of  his  stomach,  can 
not  be  expected  to  content  himself  with  half-pint  ra- 
tions d  la  Luigi  Cornaro,  and  in  midsummer,  after  six 
months  of  sedentary  life,  a  boy  should  get  his  fill  of 
out-door  exercises ;  let  him  drink  sunlight  at  every  pore, 
do  not  stint  his  allowance  of  oxygen,  compensate  him 
for  very  long  arrears  of  woodland  air  and  mountain- 
rambles. 

With  a  little  experience  vacation  trips  can  be  man- 
aged very  cheaply.  Professor  Jordan,  of  the  llefeld 
Pedagogium,  takes  his  summer  boarders  to  the  Hartz, 
or  even  to  the  Austrian  Alps,  at  an  aggregate  daily  ex- 
pense of  fifteen  marks  (three  and  a  half  dollars)  for 
twenty  or  twenty-five  big  boys  with  North-German  ap- 
petites. They  carry  their  own  beds  in  the  form  of  a 
plaid  and  a  plair  of  foot-sacks  (boot-like  felt  socks),  and 
sleep  wherever  they  find  a  shade-tree  or  an  open  barn. 
Their  portable  commissariat  consists  of  biscuits  and 
brown  sugar ;  with  fresh  milk  and  such  entremets  as 
the  mountain  inns  may  afford,  they  make  out  two  good 
meals  a  day,  besides  occasional  luncheons  of  nuts  and 
huckleberries.  Twenty-two  of  the  twenty-four  hours 
are  thus  spent  in  the  open  air,  but  the  long  summer 
days  are  almost  too  short  for  all  the  entertainments  on 
the  liberal  professor's  programme.  Zoology,  botany, 
and  geology  are  only  collateral  pursuits,  the  main  thing 
is  the  uproarious  fun  in  the  mountains ;  climbing  cliffs, 
tumbling  bowlders  from  projecting  rocks,  and  chasing 
squirrels  from  tree  to  tree  do  not  endanger  the  toilet  of 


112  PHYSICAL   EDUCATION. 

the  excursionists,  for  every  one  of  them  wears  turner- 
drell,  a  sort  of  coarse  linen,  as  tough,  though  not  quite 
as  soft,  as  corduroy. 

Observant  managers  of  such  expeditions  soon  get 
rid  of  the  dismal  prejudices  against  cold  spring-water, 
"  wet  feet,"  and  "  untimely  baths."  The  craving  of  a 
thirsty  wanderer  after  cold  water  is  not  an  abnormal 
appetency,  but  a  natural  instinct,  and  can  be  indulged 
with  perfect  impunity ;  a  bath  in  sun-warmed  river- 
water  is  healthy  as  long  as  it  is  enjoyable ;  South-Sea 
Islanders  and  the  children  of  the  Genoese  fishermen 
spend  whole  afternoons  in  the  surf,  and — barring  sharks 
and  medusas — without  fear  of  dangerous  consequences. 
There  is  no  harm  in  wet  stockings  as  long  as  the  feet 
are  in  motion ;  at  home  it  is  perhaps  better  to  change 
them  at  once,  though  the  Canadian  lumbermen  dry 
them  on  their  legs  before  the  camp-fire,  or  even  in  bed 
— i.  e.,  under  a  pair  of  "  Mackinaw  blankets,"  which 
blankets  have  often  served  as  overcoats  during  the  day, 
but  in  the  course  of  the  night  are  dried  by  the  animal 
warmth  like  a  pack  of  wet  sheets.  Sun-strokes  can  be 
obviated  by  a  simple  and  very  inexpensive  precaution 
— temporary  abstinence  from  animal  food.  A  refriger- 
ating diet  (vegetables,  fruit,  etc.)  counteracts  the  effect 
of  a  high  atmospheric  temperature,  but  the  calorific  in- 
fluence of  meat  and  fat,  combined  with  solar  heat  and 
bodily  exertion,  overcomes  the  organic  power  of  resist- 
ance, the  pyretic  blood-changes  produce  congestion  of 
the  brain  and  sometimes  instant  death.  I  venture  the 
assertion  that  in  nineteen  out  of  twenty  cases  of  coma- 
tose sun-stroke  it  will  be  found  that  the  victims  were 
persons  who  had  gone  to  work  in  the  hot  sun  after  a 
meal  of  greasy  viands.  One  to  two  P.  M.  is  the  sun- 
stroke-hour. 


OUT-DOOR  LIFE.  U3 

Among  the  permanent  benefits  which  young  persons 
may  derive  from  a  pedestrian  tour,  it  is  not  the  least 
that  they  will  mostly  get  rid  of  the  night-air  supersti- 
tion. Sweet  rest  and  pleasant  dreams  he  knows  not 
who  has  never  slept  under  a  Mexican  live-oak  tree  on  a 
bundle  of  fresh-plucked  Spanish-moss,  or  in  the  loft  of 
a  Tennessee  cotton-gin  while  the  winds  of  the  summer 
night  play  in  draughts  and  counter-draughts  through 
four  open  louvres.  The  advantages  of  a  hardy  educa- 
tion in  all  such  things  are  quite  incalculable ;  the  word 
hardiness  sums  up  the  chief  characteristics  that  distin- 
guished the  moral  and  physical  life  of  the  ante-Chris- 
tian ages  from  the  scrofulous  effeminacy  of  our  stove- 
room  civilization. 

The  teachers  of  the  Pedagogium  and  similar  insti- 
tutions assured  me  that  their  scholars  were  never  more 
aufgeweckt  (wide-awake)  than  during  the  first  six  or 
eight  weeks  after  the  long  vacations ;  even  the  drawing- 
masters  had  no  reason  to  complain  about  "  club-fists." 
It  is  a  very  common  but  quite  erroneous  notion  that  the 
burly  strength  of  the  human  hand  impairs  its  capacity 
for  delicate  manipulations:  the  iron-fisted  Gemsen- 
jager  of  the  Tyrolese  Alps  are  the  nicest  marksmen ; 
and  Leonardo  da  Yinci,  who  could  draw  a  perfect  cir- 
cle without  a  compass,  could  not  the  less  break  a  silver 
piaster  between  his  two  thumbs  and  two  forefingers. 

The  Ilefelders  were  also  the  first  to  make  Saturday 
an  hygienic  sabbath.  In  spring  and  fall,  all  such  Sat- 
urdays should  be  consecrate  to  the  wood  -  gods ;  leaf- 
forests,  under  the  influence  of  sunlight,  exhale  the  an- 
tidote of  our  atmospheric  poisons.  Start  the  young- 
sters at  sunrise  with  a  basketful  of  cold  meats,  and 
orders  for  an  equal  quantity  of  strawberries,  or,  if  the 
woods  are  safe,  let  them  go  on  Friday  night,  and  camp 


H4:  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

in  the  open  air ;  they  will  long  for  the  advent  of  that 
night  as  Tom-a-lin  for  the  festival  of  the  fairies.  Let 

O 

them  rise  with  the  sun  and  spend  the  whole  day  in 
active  exercise,  the  merrier  the  better ;  in  a  mountain 
country  arrange  a  new  programme  for  every  week,  ex- 
plore the  local  Ararats,  and  let  the  boys  scale  them  in 
succession,  as  the  members  of  the  Alpine  Club  tackle 
their  bergs  and  horns.  If  the  weather  should  disappoint 
you,  do  not  hesitate  to  improve  the  next  sunny  day, 
though  it  should  happen  to  be  a  Sunday.  The  God  of 
Nature  can  be  worshiped  in  his  own  temple :  the  won- 
der of  his  living  world  is  his  most  authentic  revelation. 
Where  Sunday  is  the  only  free  day  in  the  week,  no 
puritanical  tyranny  or  Jesuitical  ingenuity  will  ever 
prevent  the  poor  from  making  it  a  day  of  recreation  ; 
the  only  question  is,  whether  that  recreation  shall  be 
sought  in  the  secret  rum-shops  and  back-alleys  of  the 
city,  whose  gates  the  Sabbatarians  would  shut  upon  us, 
or  in  the  free  woods  and  mountains,  where  the  wor- 
shiper of  the  All-Father  can  find  inspiration  as  well  as 
joy  and  health.  The  wood-thrush,  it  is  true,  does  not 
modulate  her  anthems  in  a  whining  drawl ;  the  pine- 
tree  lifts  his  head  without  fear  of  provoking  his  Creator 
by  a  want  of  crawling  humility;  no  dread  of  a  joy- 
hating  priest-god  disturbs  the  gambols  of  the  squirrel 
and  the  aerial  dances  of  the  brook-midge ;  the  butterfly 
and  the  humming-bird  do  not  think  it  necessary  to 
"  mortify  the  eye  with  dreary  drab,"  but  their  happi- 
ness imparts  a  lesson  not  less  divine  for  being  at  vari- 
ance with  the  doctrines  of  an  atrabilious  fanatic. 

According  to  the  Grecian  allegory,  the  wood-craft 
goddess  Diana  was  the  antagonist  of  the  Cyprian  Yenus ; 
and  &  penchant  for  out-door  sports  is  indeed  the  best 
safeguard  against  certain  vices  of  yonth.  The  preco- 


OUT-DOOR  LIFE.  H5 

cious  Don  Juans  of  our  great  cities  could  be  more 
easily  reformed  by  a  hunting  expedition  to  the  next 
Sierra  Nevada  than  by  all  the  homilies  of  Fray  Gerun- 
dio.  Like  depraved  humors,  prurient  propensities  yield 
to  active  exercise  more  readily  than  to  physic  and 
prayer.  Hunting  tribes  are  generally  continent,  stal- 
wart, and  comely ;  wood  air  is  a  cosmetic ;  the  finest 
types  of  the  human  form  are  not  found  within  the 
precincts  of  the  Palais  Royal,  but  in  the  Caucasus  and 
the  Kentucky  forest  counties. 

Enjoyable  winter  excursions  are  a  privilege  of  the 
rich  ;  still,  a  pair  of  good  skates  make  a  convenient 
pond  or  a  small  river  a  great  blessing.  From  a  sanitary 
point  of  view,  the  neighborhood  of  larger  streams  is  not 
so  much  of  an  advantage ;  besides  being  the  terror  of 
parents  during  the  skating  season,  a  big  river  is  apt  to 
render  the  contiguous  lowlands  more  or  less  malarious, 
especially  after  every  inundation.  In  snow-bound  vil- 
lages children  have  to  depend  mainly  on  in-door  exer- 
cises ;  cold  air,  however,  is  a  powerful  tonic,  and  a  two 
hours'  snow-ball  fight  will  generally  suffice  to  vitalize  a 
juvenile  constitution  for  a  couple  of  days.  Mountain 
air,  too,  is  a  peptic  stimulant,  and  pedestrian  excursions 
are  doubly  invigorating  if  they  include  a  good  deal  of 
up-hill  work. 

For  those  who  wish  to  select  their  dwelling-place 
with  regard  to  the  hygienic  interest  of  their  children, 
the  best  location  is,  therefore,  on  the  whole,  the  bank 
of  a  small  river  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  large  mount- 
ain-range. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

G  YMNASTICS, 
"  Force  begets  Fortitude  and  conquers  Fortune."— HEI/VEIIUS. 

PHYSICAL  vigor  is  tlie  basis  of  all  moral  and  bodily 
welfare,  and  a  chief  condition  of  permanent  health. 
Like  manly  strength  and  female  purity,  gymnastics  and 
temperance  should  go  hand  in  hand.  An  effeminate 
man  is  half  sick  ;  without  the  stimulus  of  physical  ex- 
ercise, the  complex  organism  of  the  human  body  is 
liable  to  disorders  which  abstinence  and  chastity  can 
only  partly  counteract.  By  increasing  the  action  of  the 
circulatory  system,  athletic  sports  promote  the  elimina- 
tion of  effete  matter  and  quicken  all  the  vital  processes 
till  languor  and  dyspepsia  disappear  like  rust  from  a 
busy  plowshare.  "  When  I  reflect  on  the  immunity  of 
hard-working  people  from  the  effects  of  wrong  and 
overfeeding,"  says  Dr.  Boerhaave,  "I  can  not  help 
thinking  that  most  of  our  fashionable  diseases  might  be 
cured  mechanically  instead  of  chemically,  by  climbing 
a  bitterwood-tree  or  chopping  it  down,  if  you  like, 
rather  than  swallowing  a  decoction  of  its  disgusting 
leaves."  The  medical  philosopher,  Asclepiades,  Pliny 
tells  us,  had  found  that  health  could  be  preserved,  and, 
if  lost,  restored,  by  physical  exercise  alone,  and  not  only 
discarded  the  use  of  internal  remedies,  but  made  a  pub- 
lic declaration  that  he  would  forfeit  all  claim  to  the 
title  of  a  physician  if  he  should  ever  fall  sick  or  die  but 


GYMNASTICS.  H7 

by  violence  or  extreme  old  age.  Asclepiades  kept  his 
word,  for  he  lived  upward  of  a  century,  and  died  from 
the  effects  of  an  accident.  He  used  to  prescribe  a 
course  of  gymnastics  for  every  form  of  bodily  ailment, 
and  the  same  physic  might  be  successfully  applied  to 
certain  moral  disorders,  incontinence,  for  instance,  and 
the  incipient  stages  of  the  alcohol-habit.  It  would  be 
a  remedy  ad  principium,  curing  the  symptoms  by  re- 
moving the  cause,  for  some  of  the  besetting  vices  of 
youth  can  with  certainty  be  ascribed  to  an  excess  of 
that  potential  energy  which  finds  no  outlet  in  the  func- 
tions of  our  sedentary  mode  of  life.  In  large  cities 
parents  owe  their  children  a  provision  for  a  frequent 
opportunity  of  active  exercise,  as  they  owe  them  an 
antiseptic  diet  in  a  malarious  climate. 

Nor  can  this  obligation  be  evaded  by  depreciating 
the  importance  of  physical  culture  as  distinct  from  that 
of  the  mental  faculties.  For  the  term  of  their  earthly 
pilgrimage  the  human  body  and  the  most  immortal  soul 
are  more  inseparable  and  more  interdependent  than  the 
horse  and  its  rider :  a  Centaur  would  hardly  have  pro- 
moted his  higher  interests  by  neglecting  the  equine 
part  of  his  person.  "  I  have  sinned  against  my  brother, 
the  Ass,"  said  St.  Francis,  when  the  abuse  of  his  body 
had  brought  on  a  mortal  disease.  For  the  idea  that 
the  supremacy  of  the  mind  could  be  enforced  by  debili- 
tating penances  is  a  fatal  mistake  ;  an  enervated  body, 
instead  of  ministering  to  the  needs  of  the  mind,  becomes 
its  tyrant,  a  querulous,  capricious,  and  exorbitant  master. 
Every  hospital  attendant  knows  that,  with  the  rarest 
exceptions,  the  sufferers  from  exhausting  diseases  have 
no  more  self-control  than  a  fretful  child.  Neither  can 
the  progress  of  our  mechanical  industries  be  made  a 
pretext  for  undervaluing  the  advantages  of  an  athletic 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

education.  It  has  been  prophesied  that  the  time  will 
come  when  the  autocrat  of  the  breakfast-table  shall 
break  his  egg  with  a  dynamite  wafer ;  but,  unless  we 
invent  a  labor-saving  contrivance  for  every  muscle  of 
the  human  organism,  there  is  not  a  day  in  the  year  nor 
an  hour  in  the  day  when  the  practical  business  of  life 
can  not  be  performed  more  easily  and  more  pleasantly 
with  the  aid  of  a  vigorous  body,  not  to  remention  the 
moral  disadvantages  which  never  fail  to  attend  the  loss 
of  manly  self-reliance.  Active  exercises  also  confer 
beauty  of  form  and  a  natural  grace  of  deportment. 
"  By  their  system  of  physical  culture,"  says  a  Scotch 
author,  "the  Greeks  realized  that  beautiful  symmetry 
of  shape  which  for  us  exists  only  in  the  ideal,  or  in  the 
forms  of  divinity  which  they  sculptured  from  figures  of 
such  perfect  proportions." 

That  a  man's  welfare  in  every  sense  of  the  word 
depends  upon  the  normal  development  of  his  body 
might,  therefore,  seem  an  axiom  whose  self-evidence 
could  be  questioned  only  in  a  fit  of  insane  infatuation ; 
yet  an  Oriental  fanatic  has  succeeded  in  tainting  count- 
less millions  of  his  fellow-men  with  this  very  insanity. 
About  six  hundred  years  before  the  beginning  of  our 
chronological  era,  a  speculative  philosopher  of  Northern 
Hindostan  set  about  to  investigate  the  origin  of  the 
sufferings  which  so  often  make  human  life  a  burden 
instead  of  a  blessing,  and,  failing  to  trace  these  afflic- 
tions to  any  avoidable  cause,  he  took  it  into  his  head 
that  terrestrial  existence  itself  must  be  an  evil,  and  con- 
ceived the  unhappy  idea  of  preaching  a  crusade  against 
the  love  of  earth  and  the  rights  of  the  human  body,  as 
distinct  from  a  supposed  preternatural  part  of  our  be- 
ing. His  success  has  been,  beyond  all  compare,  the 
greatest  calamity  that  ever  befell  the  human  race  since 


GYMNASTICS. 

the  days  of  the  traditional  deluge ;  not  only  that  the 
doctrines  of  Gautama  bore  their  fruit  in  the  utter  phys- 
ical degeneration  of  his  native  country,  and  the  populous 
empires  of  Eastern  Asia,  but,  seven  centuries  after,  the 
essential  doctrines  of  Buddhism,  intensified  by  an  ad- 
mixture of  Gnostic  demonism  and  Hebrew  mythology, 
were  preached  upon  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
and  invaded  the  paradise  of  the  Aryan  nations.  A 
mania  of  self-torture  and  miracle- worship  broke  out  like 
a  mental  epidemic,  and,  at  the  very  time  when  the  influ- 
ence of  Grecian  civilization  began  to  wane,  the  new  creed 
spread  into  Italy,  and  the  friends  of  science  and  freedom  » 
were  confronted  with  the  fearful  danger  of  an  anti-" 
natural  religion.  What  that  danger  meant,  our  liberated 
age  can  hardly  realize  unless  we  review  the  fate  of 
those  nations  to  whom  salvation  came  too  late ;  on 
whose  destiny  the  curse  of  that  superstition  has  been 
wrought  out  to  the  bitter  end.  The  attempt  to  carry 
the  theories  of  the  Hebrew  fanatics  into  practice  led  to 
a  state  of  affairs  against  which  the  unpossessed  part  of 
mankind  had  to  combine  in  sheer  self-defense ;  the 
maniacs  were  overpowered,  but  only  after  a  struggle 
which  has  trampled  the  chief  battle-fields  into  dust,  and 
not  before  they  had  turned  the  Mediterranean  God- 
garden  into  such  a  pandemonium  of  madness,  tyranny, 
and  wretchedness,  that  the  lot  of  the  African  savages 
appeared  heaven  in  comparison.  The  annals  of  pagan 
despotism  furnish  no  parallel  to  the  pages  stained  with 
blood  and  tears  that  record  the  horrors  of  the  inquisi- 
torial butcheries  and  man-hunts  of  the  middle  ages. 
The  history  of  science  is  the  history  of  a  day  with  a 
bright  morning  and  a  sunny  evening,  but  interrupted  at 
the  noontide  hour  by  a  total  eclipse  of  common  sense 
and  reason.  The  men  that  inculcated  a  belief  in  the 


120  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

possibility  of  witchcraft  and  demoniac  possession  are 
responsible  for  the  agonies  of  the  three  million  human 
beings  that  perished  in  the  flames  of  the  stake;  the 
dogma  of  total  natural  depravity  guided  the  arm  that 
aimed  its  poisoned  daggers  at  the  heart  of  every  social, 
political,  or  scientific  reformer.  But  the  direst  of  all 
the  evils  which  made  the  rule  of  the  miracle-mongers 
the  unhappiest  period  in  the  history  of  this  earth  was, 
after  all,  their  total  neglect  of  physical  education — the 
logical  outcome  of  their  Nature-hating  insanity.  Their 
disciples  were  assured,  in  the  name  of  an  infallible  reve- 
lator,  that  all  earthly  concernments  are  vain ;  that  we 
can  not  please  G-od  without  mortifying  our  bodies ;  that 
our  natural  instincts  must  be  suppressed,  in  order  to 
qualify  our  souls  for  the  New  Jerusalem.  The  joys  of 
Nature  were  to  be  shunned  as  man-traps  of  the  arch- 
fiend. Sickness  was  to  be  cured  by  prayer  and  certain 
ecclesiastic  ceremonies.  "  Bodily  exercise,"  we  are  in- 
formed, "profited  but  little."  The  Olympic  games 
were  suppressed  by  order  of  a  Christian  emperor.* 
The  health-code  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation  was  repealed 
as  unessential,  and  indeed  superfluous,  in  a  community 
of  miracle-workers  who  could  defy  the  laws  of  Nature 
with  the  aid  of  supernal  spirits.  Gluttony  and  be- 
sottedness  were  encouraged  by  the  example  of  the  min- 
isters of  that  creed.  Manly  exercises,  the  festivals  of 
the  seasons,  mirth,  pastimes,  and  health-giving  sports 
were  discouraged  as  unworthy  of  a  true  saint ;  the  sons 
of  the  thaumaturgic  church  were  taught  that  our  natu- 
ral desires  and  natural  dispositions  are  wholly  evil ;  that 
the  study  of  worldly  sciences  is  vain,  and  solicitude  for 
the  welfare  of  the  body  a  proof  of  an  unregenerate 
heart. 

*  "  A.  D."  394. 


GYMNASTICS. 


121 


To  these  doctrines  we  owe  the  consequences  of  our 
countless  sins  against  the  physical  laws  of  God;  the 
many  irretrievable  losses  by  the  ruin  of  a  former  civili- 
zation ;  the  terrible  night  of  the  long  centuries  when 
science  was  paralyzed,  when  industrial  progress  was 
limited  to  the  invention  of  new  instruments  of  torture, 
when  the  neglect  of  husbandry  changed  so  many  Elys> 
ian  fields  into  hopeless  deserts.  To  these  doctrines  the 
Latin  peoples  owe  the  sickliness  and  effeminacy  which 
contrast  their  present  generation  with  the  hero-race  of 
antiquity.  It  is  a  favorite  subterfuge  of  the  Jesuitical 
apologists  to  ascribe  that  degeneracy  to  climatic  influ- 
ences. A  cold  climate  has  not  saved  the  North-China 
votaries  of  Buddhism,  and  would  not  have  saved  the 
North-Europeans  against  a  prolonged  influence  of  He- 
brew Buddhism.  "We  must  not  forget  that  in  North- 
ern Europe  the  rule  of  the  anti-naturalists  did  not  be- 
gin before  the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  and  never 
overcame  the  latent  protestantism  of  the  Teuton  races. 
In  a  warmer  country  than  Italy  the  votaries  of  the 
manlier  prophet  of  El  Medina  have  always  preserved 
their  physical  vigor,  and  the  representative  North- Afri- 
can of  the  present  day  is  the  physical  superior  of  his 
South-European  contemporary,  while  the  forefathers  of 
the  same  African  were  mere  children  in  the  hands  of 
the  palsestra-trained  Roman  warrior. 

The  physical  corruption  of  the  non-Mohammedan 
inhabitants  of  Southern  Europe  and  Southern  Asia  has 
reached  the  incurable  stage  of  complacent  effeminacy  : 
their  indifference  to  the  vices  of  indolence  precludes  the 
possibility  of  reform.  Indifference  to  physical  degra- 
dation is,  indeed,  a  symptom  of  a  deep-seated  disease. 
Mental  inertness  is  often  but  a  dormant  state  of  the 
intellect,  a  state  from  which  the  sleeper  may  be  roused 

6 


122  PHYSICAL   EDUCATION. 

at  any  moment  by  the  din  of  war,  by  the  light  of  a 
great  discovery,  by  the  voice  of  an  inspired  poet.  Phys- 
ical indolence  is  the  torpor  which  precedes  the  sleep 
that  knows  no  waking.  The  civilization  of  Greece, 
Dutch  art,  the  science  of  Bagdad  and  Cordova,  sprang 
up,  like  water  from  the  rock  of  Moses.  Can  historians 
point  out  a  single  instance  of  an  unmanned  people  re- 
gaining their  manhood  ?  The  bodily  degeneracy  of  a 
whole  nation  dooms  it  to  a  hopeless  retrogression  in 
prosperity  and  political  power. 

The  first  use  we  should  make  of  our  regained  liberty 
is,  therefore,  the  re-establishment  of  those  institutions 
to  whose  influence  the  happiest  nations  of  antiquity 
owed  their  energy  and  their  physical  prowess,  their 
martial  and  moral  heroism,  their  fortitude  in  adversity. 
The  physical  constitution  of  man  was  never  intended 
for  the  sluggish  inactivity  of  our  sedentary  and  Sabba- 
tarian mode  of  life.  In  a  state  of  nature,  the  faculty  of 
voluntary  motion  distinguishes  animals  from  plants,  and 
our  next  relatives  in  the  great  family  of  the  animal  king- 
dom are  the  most  restlessly  active  of  all  warm-blooded 
creatures.  The  children  of  Nature — hunters,  shepherds, 
and  nomads — pass  their  days  in  out-door  labor  and  out- 
door sports  ;  physical  exercise  affords  them  at  once  the 
necessaries  of  life  and  the  means  of  recreation,  and 
secures  them  against  all  physical  ills  but  wounds  and 
the  infirmities  of  extreme  old  age.  Civilization,  i.  e., 
life  on  the  co-operative  plan,  exempts  many  individuals 
from  the  necessity  of  supplying  their  daily  wants  by 
daily  physical  labor  ;  wealth  removes  the  objective  ne- 
cessity of  physical  exercise,  but  the  subjective  necessity 
remains;  millions  of  city-dwellers,  in  their  pursuit  of 
artificial  luxuries,  stint  their  bodies  in  the  natural  means 
of  happiness ;  they  increase  their  stock  of  creature-corn- 


GYMNASTICS.  123 

forts  and  decrease  their  capacity  for  enjoying  them; 
religious  and  social  dogmas  pervert  their  natural  in- 
stincts; their  children  are  crammed  with  metaphysics 
till  they  forget  the  physical  laws  of  God. 

These  evils  the  inventors  of  gymnastics  managed  to 
counteract,  and,  before  we  can  hope  to  recover  the  Gre- 
cian earth-paradise,  our  system  of  public  education  needs 
an  essential  and  thorough  reform.  On  earth,  at  leastj 
moral  and  physical  culture  should  be  as  inseparable  as 
mind  and  body ;  every  town  school  should  have  an  in- 
door and  out-door  gymnasium  ;  the  same  village  car- 
penter who  takes  a  contract  for  a  dozen  rustic  school- 
benches  should  get  an  order  for  an  horizontal  bar  and  a 
couple  of  jumping-boards ;  every  school  district  should 
appoint  a  superintendent  of  gymnastics ;  every  town  a 
committee  of  public  arenas:  cities  that  can  afford  to 
devote  a  hundred  tax-free  tabernacles  to  Hebrew  my- 
thology might  well  spare  an  acre  of  ground  for  Grecian 
athletics. 

At  a  very  early  period  the  Greeks  of  Southern  Eu- 
rope and  Asia  Minor  had  recognized  the  truth  that, 
with  the  advance  of  civilization  and  civilized  modes  of 
life,  a  regular  system  of  bodily  training  must  be  substi- 
tuted for  the  lost  opportunities  of  physical  exercise  which 
Nature  affords  so  abundantly  to  her  children  in  the 
daily  functions  of  their  wild  life.  "  It  is  impossible  to 
repress  luxury  by  legislation,"  says  Solon,  in  Lucian's 
«  Dialogues  of  Anacharsis,"  "  but  its  influence  may  be 
counteracted  by  athletic  games,  which  invigorate  the 
body  and  give  a  martial  character  to  the  amusements  of 
our  young  men." 

The  nature  of  ancient  weapons  and  the  use  of  heavy 
defensive  armor  made  the  development  of  physical 
force  a  subject  of  national  importance,  but  military  ef- 


124:  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

ficiency  was  by  no  means  the  exclusive  object  of  gymnas- 
tic exercises.  The  law  of  Lycurgus  provides  free  train- 
ing-schools for  the  thorough  physical  education  of  both 
sexes,  and  cautions  parents  against  giving  their  daugh- 
ters in  marriage  before  they  had  attained  the  prescribed 
degree  of  proficiency  in  certain  exercises,  which  were 
less  ornamental  and  probably  less  popular  than  what  we 
call  calisthenics.  Grecian  physicians,  too,  prescribed  a 
course  of  athletic  sports  against  various  complaints,  and 
had  invented  a  special  curriculum  of  gymnastics,  which, 
as  ^Elian  assures  us,  never  failed  to  cure  obesity.  When 
the  increase  of  wealth  and  culture  threatened  to  affect 
the  manly  vigor  of  the  race,  physical  education  wras 
taken  in  hand  by  the  municipal-  authorities  of  almost 
every  Grecian  city ;  and  the  ablest  statesmen  of  Athens, 
Thebes,  and  Corinth,  emulated  the  Spartan  legislator 
in  founding  palsestrse,  gymnasia,  and  international  race- 
courses, and  devising  measures  for  popularizing  these 
institutions.  Four  different  localities — Olympia,  Cor- 
inth, Nemea,  and  the  Dionysian  race-course  near  Athens 
— were  consecrated  to  the  "Panhellenic  games,"  at 
which  the  athletes  of  all  the  Grecian  tribes  of  Europe 
and  Asia  met  for  a  trial  of  strength  at  intervals  varying 
from  six  months  to  four  years,  the  latter  being  the  pe- 
riod of  the  great  Olympic  games  which  formed  the 
basis  of  ancient  chronology.  The  honor  of  being 
crowned  in  the  presence  of  an  assembled  nation  would 
alone  have  sufficed  to  enlist  the  competition  of  all  able- 
bodied  men  of  a  glory-loving  race,  but  many  additional 
inducements  made  the  Olympic  championship  the  day- 
dream of  youth  and  manhood,  and  served  to  increase 
the  ardor  of  gymnastic  emulation.  The  victors  of  the 
Isthmian  and  Nemean  games  were  exempt  from  taxa- 
tion, became  the  idols  of  their  native  towns,  were  se- 


GYMNASTICS.  125 

•• 

cured  against  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  and  the  wants 
of  old  age,  by  a  liberally-endowed  annuity  fund,  and  en- 
joyed all  the  advantages  and  immunities  of  the  privi- 
leged classes. 

Egenetus,  a  humble  citizen  of  Agrigentum,  won 
three  out  of  the  five  prizes  of  the  ninety-second  Olym- 
piad, and  was  at  once  raised  from  poverty  to  opulence  by 
the  magnificent  presents  which  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
spectators  forced  upon  him  before  he  had  left  the  arena. 
His  return  to  his  native  city  was  attended  by  a  proces- 
sion of  three  hundred  chariots,  each  drawn,  like  his  own, 
by  two  white  horses,  and  all  belonging  to  the  citizens 
of  the  town.  All  international  quarrels  and  family 
feuds  were  suspended  when  the  preparatory  interval  of 
forty-eight  months  approached  its  close,  and  even  pris- 
oners of  war  and  political  culprits  were  released  on 
parole  if  they  wished  to  contest  the  laurel  wreath  of  any 
championship,  for  to  deprive  them  of  the  chance  of 
winning  snch  a  distinction  was  thought  a  penalty  too 
severe  for  a  merely  political  offense.  The  ecstatic 
power  of  an  Olympian  triumph  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
story  of  Diagoras,  the  Bhodian,  who  had  been  a  famous 
champion  in  his  younger  days,  and  was  present  when 
his  two  sons  won  the  entire  pentathlon,  i.  e.,  carried  off 
the  five  prizes  for  which  the  athletes  of  all  Greece  had 
been  training  during  the  four  years  preceding  the  sixty- 
first  Olympiad.  When  the  boys  lifted  their  father  up 
and  carried  him  through  the  ajena,  the  shouts  of  the 
assembled  multitude  were  heard  in  the  harbor  of  Patrse, 
at  a  distance  of  seven  leagues,  but  Diagoras  had  heard 
nothing  on  earth  after  the  herald's  voice  had  proclaimed 
the  names  of  the  victors ;  "  the  gods,"  as  Pindar  says, 
"  had  granted  that  the  happiest  moment  of  his  life  should 
be  his  last."  Would  Diagoras  have  exchanged  that 


126  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION 

moment  for  a  week  of  those  "  beatific  visions  "  which 
rewarded  St.  Dominic  for  his  seven  years'  penance  ? 

If  any  athlete  received  more  than  one  prize  of  the 
'  same  Olympiad,  his  victory  was  commemorated  by  a 
statue  executed  by  the  best  contemporary  sculptor  of 
his  native  state.  What  a  terrestrial  Walhalla  it  must 
have  been,  that  sacred  mountain  grove  of  Elis,  where 
these  statues  were  erected  in  the  shade  of  majestic  trees, 
while  the  summit  of  the  hill  and  the  open  meadows  were 
adorned  by  such  masterpieces  of  Grecian  architecture 
as  the  temple  of  Jupiter  Olympius  and  the  Pantheon 
of  Callicrates  !  Besides  the  military  drill-grounds  and 
the  public  gymnasia,  of  which  every  hamlet  had  one  or 
two,  and  where  the  complete  apparatus  for  all  possible 
sports  was  often  combined  with  free  baths  and  lecture- 
halls,  the  larger  cities  had  associations  for  the  promo- 
tion of  the  special  favorite  exercises,  the  brag-accom- 
plishments of  the  rival  towns.  Wrestling,  javelin- 
throwing,  running,  leaping,  pitching  the  quoit,  riding, 
driving,  climbing  ropes,  shooting  the  arrow,  were  all 
practiced  by  as  many  amateur  clubs,  which  commonly 
owned  a  race-course  or  a  private  hall. 

Plato's  Academia  and  Aristotle's  Lyceum  were  both 
gymnastic  institutions,  where  the  patricians  of  Athens 
spent  their  leisure  hours,  and  often  joined  in  the  exer- 
cises of  the  athletes.  Our  best  citizens  should  emulate 
their  example,  and  help  to  eradicate  the  lingering  prej- 
udice against  the  culture  of  the  manly  powers.  A  field- 
day,  consecrated  to  Olympic  games  and  the  competitive 
gymnastics  of  the  Turner-hall,  should  be  the  grandest 
yearly  festival  of  a  free  nation. 

In  the  mean  time  we  must  help  our  children  the 
best  way  we  can  by  giving  them  plenty  of  time  for  out- 
door exercise,  and  providing  them,  according  to  our 


GYMNASTICS.  127 

means,  with  some  domestic  substitutes  for  the  gymnas- 
tic apparatus  which,  I  trust,  the  next  generation  will 
find  in  every  village  hall  and  every  town  school.* 

Children  have  a  natural  penchant  for  active  exer- 
cises. Sloth  is  one  of  the  vices  we  should  drop  from 
our  catalogue  of  original  sins.  If  a  child  were  banished 
from  the  haunts  of  men,  and  left  to  grow  up  as  a  wild 
thing  of  the  woods,  he  would  turn  out  a  self-made 
gymnast,  though  perhaps  also  in  the  original  sense  of 
the  term,  for  gymnasium  and  gymnastics  were  derived 
from  a  word  which  means  naked.  Nature  seems  to 
deem  the  development  of  our  limbs  a  matter  of  greater 
importance  than  their  envelopment,  and  clothes  are  of- 
ten, indeed,  the  first  impediment  to  the  free  exercise  of 
our  motive  organs.  The  regulation  dress  of  the  Swed- 
ish turners  is,  in  this  respect,  also  the  best  dress  for 
children — a  light  jacket,  wide  trousers  and  shirts,  and 
broad,  low-heeled  shoes ;  in-doors,  and  in  summer-time, 
shoes  and  stockings  should  often  be  altogether  dispensed 
with.  Stephens,  the  celebrated  English  trainer,  re- 
marked that  only  men  who  have  their  toes  perfectly 
straight  will  make  first-rate  runners  and  wrestlers,  and 
this  qualification  is  nowadays  a  privilege  of  country  lads 
who  are  permitted  (or  obliged)  to  run  around  barefoot 
all  summer.  Considering  the  way  we  treat  our  feet,  it 
must  often  puzzle  us  what  our  toes  were  made  for, 
anyhow ;  but  the  antics  of  a  baby  in  the  cradle  prove 

*  In  1825  Professor  Beck  opened  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  the 
first  American  school  where  gymnastics  formed  a  branch  of  the  regular 
curriculum.  He  has  found  followers,  but,  considering  our  progress  in 
other  directions,  his  wheat  can  not  be  said  to  have  fallen  on  a  fertile 
soil.  Taking  Massachusetts,  Ohio,  and  North  Carolina,  as  representative 
States  of  their  respective  sections,  it  seems  that  at  present  (1881)  an 
average  of  three  in  every  thousand  North  American  schools  pays  any 
attention  to  physical  education. 


128  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

that  the  human  foot  is  by  nature  semi-prehensile,  and 
might  be  developed  into  a  sort  of  under  hand.  Hindoo 
pickpockets  "  crib "  with  their  toes,  while  they  stand 
with  folded  arms  in  a  crowd,  and  the  Languedoc  cork- 
gatherers  ply  their  trade  without  a  ladder,  trusting  their 
lives  to  the  grasping  power  of  their  feet.  The  structural 
proportions  of  a  new-born  child  also  show  a  comparative- 
ly unimportant  difference  in  the  size  of  the  lower  and 
upper  extremities ;  but,  in  the  course  of  the  first  twelve 
years,  this  difference  increases  from  2:5  to  1:3,  and 
often  as  much  as  1 : 4 ;  in  other  words,  while  an  infant's 
two  arms  weigh  nearly  as  much  as  one  of  its  legs,  the 
arm-weight  of  a  school-boy  is  often  only  one  fourth  of 
his  leg-weight.  The  reason  is  that,  of  all  the  active 
exercise  a  child  gets,  nine  tenths  fall  generally  to  the 
share  of  its  lower  extremities.  A  little  child  can  not 
stand  erect ;  the  task  of  supporting  the  weight  of  the 
whole  body  on  two  feet  exceeds  its  untried  strength. 
But  in  local  progression  we  do  more :  taking  a  step 
means  to  support  and  propel,  or  even  lift,  the  whole 
body  by  means  of  the  foot  remaining  on  the  ground.  In 
running  up  and  down  stairs,  to  school  and  back,  and  here 
and  there  about  the  house,  the  legs  of  the  laziest  school- 
boy perform  that  feat  about  eight  thousand  times  a  day. 
What  have  his  arms  done  in  the  mean  while  ?  Carried 
a  chair  across  the  room,  perhaps,  or  elevated  so  and  so 
many  spoonfuls  of  hash  from  the  plate  to  a  place  six 
inches  farther  up,  besides  supporting  the  weight  of 
three  or  four  ounces  of  clothing.  To  equalize  this  dif- 
ference should  therefore  be  the  primary  object  of  phys- 
ical culture,  for  the  harmonious  structure  of  all  its  parts 
is  an  essential  condition  of  a  perfectly  developed  body. 
No  malformation  is  more  common  in  city  recruits  than 
a  narrow  chest.  Besides  spear-throwing,  of  which  I 


GYMNASTICS.  129 

shall  speak  further  on,  any  exercise  promoting  the 
development  of  the  shoulder-muscles  will  tend  to  ex- 
pand the  chest,  and  thus  remove  the  chief  predisposing 
cause  of  consumption.  In  a  climate  where  the  first 
four  years  of  a  child's  life  have  to  be  passed  mostly  in- 
doors, a  special  room  of  a  spacious  house  or  a  corner 
reservation  of  a  small  nursery  should  be  set  apart  for 
arm-exercises — hurling,  swinging,  and  lifting.  The  ar- 
rangements for  the  propulsive  part  of  the  good  work 
need  not  go  beyond  an  old  bolster  and  a  cushion-target, 
but  the  grapple-swing  should  be  both  safe  and  handy — 
a  pair  of  swinging-rings  suspended  at  a  height  of  about 
four  feet  from  the  floor  above  a  stratum  of  old  quilts 
and  carpets.  In  London,  and  in  some  of  our  Northeast- 
ern cities,  health-lifts  for  children  can  now  be  got  very 
cheap ;  weighted  buckets,  however,  or  sand-bags  with 
strap-handles,  will  serve  nearly  the  same  purpose  ;  and 
smaller  bags  of  that  kind  may  be  used  for  various  dumb- 
bell exercises.  A  plurality  of  young  gymnasts  can  vary 
the  programme  by  throwing  such  bags  to  each  other 
and  catching  them  with  outstretched  arms.  In  a  suit- 
able locality  I  would  add  a  knotted  rope,  fastened  to  the 
ceiling  by  means  of  a  screw-hook,  and  hanging  down  in 
a  single  or  double  chain,  which  children  soon  learn  to 
climb  by  the  hand-over-hand  process,  thus  strengthening 
the  triceps  and  flexor  muscles,  to  whose  development 
the  quadrumana  owe  their  peculiar  arm-power.  A  full- 
grown  man  who  has  passed  his  life  behind  the  counter 
will  find  it  rather  difficult  to  raise  his  body  by  the 
contraction  of  his  arm-muscles,  but,  unless  Darwin  is 
right,  Heaven  must  have  intended  us  to  pursue  the 
culture  of  our  higher  virtues  in  the  tree-tops,  after  the 
manner  of  the  gymnosophists,  for  a  young  child  acquires 
all  climbing  tricks  with  a  quite  amazing  facility— much 


130  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

readier,  in  fact,  than  the  art  of  biped  progression,  whose 
chief  difficulty  consists,  perhaps,  in  the  necessity  of 
preserving  the  equilibrium.  The  knots  should  be  far 
enough  apart  to  tempt  an  enterprising  climber  to  dispense 
with  their  use  now  and  then,  and  rely  on  the  power  of 
his  grasp  by  seizing  the  rope  at  the  interspaces ;  and 
this  exercise  should  be  especially  encouraged,  for  the 
strength  and  suppleness  of  the  wrist-joint  will  consider- 
ably facilitate  the  attainment  of  "  polytechnic  skill,"  as 
modern  Jacks-of-all-trades  begin  to  call  their  versatile 
handiness.  Nay,  the  Rev.  Salzmann  holds  that  the 
ancient  practice  of  hand-shaking  was  originally  suggest- 
ed by  the  wish  to  ascertain  the  wrist-power  and  conse- 
quent wrestling  capacity  of  a  stranger.  As  to  the  rest, 
negative  precautions  will  generally  suffice  for  the  first 
three  or  four  years.  Diminish  the  danger  of  a  fall  by 
padding  the  floor  of  your  nursery-gymnasium,  and  the 
restless  mobility  of  your  pupils  will  generally  save 
you  the  trouble  of  initiating  them  in  the  rudiments  of 
hopping  and  tumbling.  But  make  it  a  rule  with  all 
hired  or  amateur  nursery-maids  that  the  children  must 
not  be  carried  more  than  is  absolutely  necessary. 

In  long  winters  it  can  do  no  harm,  now  and  then, 
to  let  the  youngsters  turn  the  hall  into  a  race-course ; 
but,  with  the  first  warm  weather,  the  arena  should  be 
removed  to  the  next  playground — a  garden-lane,  or  a 
vacant  lot  without  rubbish-heaps,  if  the  Park  Commis- 
sioners are  too  prescriptive.  In  its  general  invigorating 
effect  on  the  organic  system,  running  surpasses  every 
other  kind  of  exercise.  Among  the  contests  of  the 
palaestra  it  ranked  above  wrestling  and  boxing ;  for 
more  than  two  hundred  years  the  Olympic  games  con- 
sisted, indeed,  exclusively  of  foot-races,  and  the  chrono- 
logical era  of  Greece  dated  from  the  year  when  the 


GYMNASTICS. 

Elean  Coroebus  defeated  his  Peloponnesian  competitors 
in  the  long-distance  match.  The  swift-footedness  of 
Achilles  is  mentioned  as  often  as  his  name  occurs  in 
the  "  Iliad  "  ;  and,  according  to  the  Scandinavian  Saga, 
the  champions  of  Jotunheim  distanced  even  the  hench- 
man of  Thor  in  a  foot-race.  Next  to  a  smooth  and 
perfectly  level  lawn,  a  firm  beach  is  the  best  race-course, 
and,  after  a  warm  day,  it  is  a  luxury  to  the  martyred 
feet  of  a  city  boy  to  tread  the  cool  sand  with  his  naked 
soles.  Fast  running  is.  on  the  whole,  a  more  valuable 
accomplishment  than  long  walking,  for  no  one  knows 
when  he  may  owe  his  life,  and  more  than  his  life,  to 
the  ability  of  outrunning  a  pursuer  or  a  fugitive  scoun- 
drel; but  walking  and  trotting  matches  against  time 
will  help  to  cure  our  children  of  that  miserable  snail- 
pace  which  has  come  to  be  the  fashion  of  every  public 
promenade.  Reduced  to  a  funeral-march,  the  "  regula- 
tion walk  "  loses  half  its  value — the  hygienic  value  of 
the  only  kind  of  out-door  exercise  which  the  children 
of  the  upper  ten  or  twenty  can  count  upon.  "Wlio 
could  wish  a  prettier  sight  than  a  bevy  of  school-girls, 
flitting  by  with  fluttering  flounces,  like  dancers  keeping 
step  to  a  merry  tune  ?  If  mothers  knew  all  the  charms 
of  animated  beauty,  they  would  not  think  it  "  more 
becoming  "  to  turn  their  children  into  tortoises.  Nor 
would  they  fear  that  they  would  "run  themselves  into 
a  consumption,"  if  they  knew  what  real  running  means, 
and  what  the  motive  organs  of  a  human  being  are  ca- 
pable of.  Mexico  has  ceased  to  be  a  terra  incognita  to 
Yankee  tourists,  and  most  visitors  to  the  upland  cities 
will  remember  the  army  of  hucksters  and  poulterers 
who  every  forenoon  turn  the  main  plaza  into  an  agri- 
cultural fair.  If  you  will  take  a  morning  walk  on  one 
of  the  sand-roads  that  diverge  from  the  south  gate  of 


132  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Puebla,  you  may  see  those  hucksters  coming  in  at  a 
trot,  girls  in  their  teens  many  of  them,  and  loaded  with 
sacks  and  baskets ;  and  upon  inquiry  you  will  learn  that 
most  of  them  come  from  the  valley  of  Tehuacan,  from 
a  distance  of  ten  or  twelve  English  miles.  The  zagal, 
or  post-boy  of  a  Spanish  mail-coach,  carries  nothing  but 
a  light  whip,  but  he  has  not  only  to  keep  pace  with  a 
team  of  galloping  horses  for  hour  after  hour,  but  has  to 
run  zigzag,  adjusting  a  strap  here,  picking  up  a  hand- 
kerchief there,  and  frequently  entertains  the  travelers 
with  a  series  of  hand-springs,  in  order  to  earn  an  extra 
media  or  two — not  to  mention  the  Grecian  hemero- 
dromes,  who  could  distance  a  horse  on  the  long  run, 
and  had  often  to  cross  rivers  and  lakes  on  their  bee-line 
routes. 

An  excellent  system  of  training  was  that  of  the  old 
Turkish  Jenidji-begs,  or  drill-masters  of  the  Janizary 
cadets,  who  made  young  boys  practice  lance-throwing 
with  a  spear  that  exceeded  the  common  javelin  both  in 
size  and  weight — "  because,  after  they  had  become  pro- 
ficient in  the  use  of  such  a  heavy  implement,  the  army- 
spear  would  be  a  mere  feather  in  their  hands."  On  the 
same  principle  the  knee-muscles  may  be  strengthened 
by  a  simple  manoeuvre  without  the  use  of  any  apparatus. 
Bend  the  left  leg  in  a  right  angle,  extending  the  right 
leg  horizontally,  and  lower  the  body  till  your  right 
heel  nearly  touches  the  ground.  Now  rise  by  straight- 
ening the  left  leg,  with  the  right  still  extended  horizon- 
tally, and  without  letting  your  hands  or  your  right  heel 
touch  the  ground.  Then  squat  down  as  before,  extend 
the  left  leg  this  time  and  rise  on  the  right,  and  so  on 
until  the  weight  of  the  body  has  been  raised  twenty  or 
thirty  times  by  the  effort  of  either  knee-joint  without 
the  aid  of  the  other.  A  moderate  proficiency  in  this 


GYMNASTICS.  133 

exercise  will  enable  girls  and  city  boys  to  walk  up-hill 
for  hours  with  the  ease  of  a  Tyrolese  goat-herd. 

In  classifying  gymnastics  after  the  degree  of  their 
usefulness,  a  prominent  place  should  be  assigned  to 
leaping,  especially  high  leaping,  an  exercise  which  im- 
parts a  powerful  stimulus  to  the  digestive  organs,  and, 
combined  with  the  shock  of  the  descent,  exerts  an 
invigorating  influence  on  the  nervous  system  in  gen- 
eral. The  leaping-gauge  of  the  Turner-hall  consists  of 
two  upright  posts  with  pegs  and  a  cord  stretched  from 
post  to  post.  Every  peg  is  marked  with  a  figure  indi- 
cating the  number  of  inches  from  the  ground,  and  by 
raising  or  lowering  the  cord  each  gymnast  can  measure 
his  jumping  capacity  and  keep  tally  of  his  score  in  a 
certain  number  of  leaps.  Competition  imparts  to  this 
sport  an  incentive  which  may  be  put  to  as  good  ac- 
count in  gymnastics  as  in  mental  exercises,  and  is  cer- 
tainly preferable  to  the  only  other  method  of  stimu- 
lating the  zeal  of  young  pupils.  Personal  ambition, 
according  to  the  ethics  of  a  certain  class  of  pedagogues, 
is  inconsistent  with  the  spirit  of  true  Christian  humility, 
and  should  be  quelled  rather  than  fomented ;  in  deal- 
ing with  unruly  youngsters  they  have  consequently  to 
resort  to  the  only  alternative,  slavish  fear,  enforced  by 
punishments  and  espionage.  For  the  nonce,  that  sys- 
tem answers  its  purpose  quite  as  well  as  the  emulation- 
method  ;  as  to  future  results,  your  choice  must  depend 
upon  the  main  question  of  modem  education,  Are  wo 
to  form  men,  or  canting  sneaks  ? 

A  quadruped  has  an  evident  advantage  over  a 
biped  jumper,  but  practice  will  do  wonders.  Leonardo 
da  Yinci  often  astounded  his  visitors  by  jumping  to 
the  ceiling  and  knocking  his  feet  against  the  bells  of  a 
glass  chandelier,  and  a  private  soldier  of  Yandamme's 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

cuirassiers  even  leaped  over  the  tutelar  deity  of  a  brass 
fountain  on  the  Frankfort  market-square.  But  the 
champion  jumper  of  modern  times  was  Joe  Ireland, 
a  native  of  Beverley  in  Yorkshire.  In  his  eighteenth 
year,  "  without  any  assistance,  trick,  or  deception,"  he 
leaped  over  nine  horses  standing  side  by  side  and  a  man 
seated  on  the  middle  horse.  He  could  clear  a  string 
held  fourteen  feet  high,  and  once  kicked  a  bladder 
hanging  sixteen  feet  from  the  ground.*  In  horizontal 
leaps  our  turners  can  not  beat  the  record  of  antiquity : 
a  Spartan  once  cleared  fifty-two  feet,  and  a  native  of 
Crotona  even  fifty  five.  Nor  would  any  modern  fili- 
busters be  likely  to  emulate  the  trick  of  the  Teuton 
freebooters  who  crossed  the  Alps  during  the  consulate 
of  Caius  Marius:  Finding  the  Koman  battle-front  in- 
expugnable, they  attempted  to  force  the  fight  by  vault- 
ing with  the  aid  of  their  frames  or  leaping-poles  over  a 
triple  row  of  mail-clad  spearmen. 

Hurling  is  the  gymnastic  specific  for  pulmonary 
complaints ;  and  the  best  possible  exercise  for  so  many 
hectic  and  narrow-chested  boys  of  our  larger  cities 
would  be  the  game  of  Ger-werfen,  as  the  turners  call 
it — spear-throwing  at  a  fixed  or  movable  mark.  It  is  a 
most  diverting  sport  after  a  week's  practice  has  hard- 
ened the  flexor  muscles  against  the  shock  of  propelling 
the  larger  spears.  The  missile  is  a  lance  of  some  tough 
wood  (ash  and  hickory  preferred),  about  ten  feet  long 
and  one  and  a  half  inch  in  diameter,  terminating  in  a 
blunt  iron  knob  to  steady  the  throw  and  keep  the  wood 
from  splintering.  A  heavy  post  with  a  movable  top- 
piece  (the  "  G-er-block ")  forms  the  target,  the  head- 
shaped  top  being  secured  by  means  of  a  stout  cramp- 
hinge  that  permits  it  to  turn  over,  but  not  to  fall  down 

*  Strutt's  "  Plays  and  Pastimes,"  p.  176. 


GYMNASTICS.  135 

— distance,  all  the  way  from  ten  to  forty  paces.  Grasp 
the  spear  near  the  middle,  raise  it  to  the  height  of  your 
ear,  plant  the  left  foot  firmly  on  the  ground,  the  right 
knee  slightly  bent,  fix  your  eye  on  the  target,  lean  back 
and  let  drive.  If  you  hit  the  log  squarely  in  the  center 
or  a  trifle  higher  up,  it  will  topple  over,  but,  still  hang- 
ing by  the  cramp-hinge,  can  be  quickly  adjusted  for 
the  next  thrower.  A  feeble  hit  will  not  stir  the  pon- 
derous Ger-block;  the  spear  has  to  impinge  with  the 
force  of  a  sixty-pound  blow,  so  that  a  successful  throw 
is  also  an  athletic  triumph.  The  German  Ger-throwere 
are  generally  lads  after  the  heart  of  Charles  Reade — 
ambidexterous  boys,  whose  either-handed  strength  and 
skill  illustrate  the  fact  that  the  antiquity  of  a  prejudice 
proves  nothing  in  its  favor.  As  the  least  vacillation  in 
the  act  of  throwing  would  derange  the  aim,  this  exer- 
cise imparts  a  perfect  command  over  the  balance  of  the 
body,  besides  improving  the  faculty  of  measuring  dis- 
tances by  jthe  eye.  It  is,  indeed,  surprising  how  soon 
gymnastics  of  this  sort  will  impart  an  easy  deportment 
and  graceful  manners  even  to  boys  in  their  lubber- 
years — "  _ffur  aits  vottendeter  Kraft  strahlet  die  An- 
muih  forvor"  as  Goethe  explains  it :  "  The  highest 
grace  is  the  outcome  of  consummate  strength." 

Climbing,  too,  calls  into  action  nearly  every  muscle 
of  the  human  body,  and  should  be  encouraged,  though 
at  the  expense  of  a  pair  of  summer  pants  or  summer 
birds,  as  the  possibility  of  accidents  is  more  than  out- 
weighed by  the  sure  gain  in  physical  self-reliance. 
There  is  a  deep  truth  in  the  apparent  paradox  that  it 
is  the  best  plan  not  to  avoid  dangers  and  difficulties 
that  can  be  mastered.  In  the  voluntary  risks  of  the 
gymnasium  the  athlete  pays  an  insurance  policy  against 
future  dangers.  In  a  man's  life  there  will  always  come 


136  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

moments  when  the  woe  and  weal  of  years  depend  on 
firm  nerves  and  a  strong  hand,  and  such  moments 
prove  the  value  of  a  system  of  training  which  teaches 
children  to  treat  danger  as  a  mechanical  problem.  The 
operation  of  the  same  cause  may  be  traced  in  the  real- 
istic influence  which  the  culture  of  the  manly  powers 
generally  exerts  on  the  human  mind.  Having  learned 
to  rely  on  their  personal  strength  and  judgment  under 
circumstances  where  shams  are  peculiarly  unavailing, 
gymnasts  will  generally  be  men  of  self-help  ;  practical, 
rather  apt  to  believe  in  the  competence  of  human  rea- 
son and  human  virtue  and  to  question  the  utility  of  a 
pious  fraud. 

On  rainy  days  an  in-door  gymnasium  is  as  useful  as 
a  private  library.  "Where  wood  is  cheap,  the  aggregate 
cost  of  the  following  apparatus  need  not  exceed  fifty 
dollars :  1.  A  spring-board  and  leaping-gauge ;  2.  An 
inclined  ladder;  3.  An  horizontal  bar;  4.  Swinging- 
rings  ;  5.  A  vaulting-horse  (rough  hewed) ;  6.  A  chest- 
expander  (elastic  band  with  handles) ;  and,  7.  A  pair 
of  Indian  clubs.  Buckets  filled  with  shot  or  pig-iron 
will  do  for  a  health-lift.  With  this  simple  apparatus  an 
infinite  variety  of  health-giving  exercises  may  be  per- 
formed without  much  risk ;  on  the  horizontal  bar  alone 
Jahn  and  Salzmann  enumerate  not  less  than  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  different  movements,  most  of  which 
have  proved  very  useful  in  correcting  special  malforma- 
tions. For  general  hygienic  purposes  a  much  smaller 
number  will  be  sufficient,  especially  where  the  neigh- 
borhood affords  an  opportunity  for  occasional  out-door 
sports ;  for  an  in-door  gymnasium  is,  after  all,  only  a 
preparatory  school,  or  at  best  a  substitute  for  the  palaes- 
tra of  Nature — the  woods,  the  sea-shore,  and  the  cliffs 
of  a  rocky  mountain-range.  But  in  large  cities  even 


GYMNASTICS.  137 

the  poorest  ought  to  procure  a  few  gymnastic  imple- 
ments ;  no  dyspeptic  should  be  without  a  spring-board 
and  some  sort  of  health-lift. 

The  victims  of  asthma  would  throw  a  considerable 
quantity  of  physic  to  the  dogs  if  they  knew  the  value 
of  a  mechanical  specific — a  few  minutes'  exercise  with 
the  balance-stick,  an  apparatus  which  any  man  can 
manufacture  in  half  an  hour,  and  at  an  expense  repre- 
senting the  value  of  an  old  broomstick  and  a  yard  of 
copper  wire.  Take  a  straight  stick,  about  six  feet  long 
and  one  inch  in  diameter,  and  mark  it  from  end  to  end 
with  deep  notches  at  regular  intervals,  say  two  inches 
apart,  with  smaller  subdivisions,  as  on  the  beam  of  a 
lever-balance.  Then  get  a  ten-pound  lump  of  pig-iron, 
or  a  large  stone,  and  gird  it  with  a  piece  of  stout  wire, 
so  as  to  let  one  end  of  the  wire  project  in  the  form  of  a 
hook.  The  exercise  consists  in  grasping  the  stick  at 
one  end,  stretching  out  arm  and  stick  horizontally  like 
a  rapier  at  a  home-thrust ;  then  draw  your  arm  back, 
still  keeping  the  stick  rigidly  horizontal,  make  your 
hand  touch  your  chin,  thrust  it  out  again,  draw  back, 
and  so  on,  till  the  fore-arm  moves  rapidly  on  a  steady 
fulcrum.  Next  load  the  stick — i.  e.,  hook  the  stone  to 
one  of  the  notches ;  every  inch  farther  out  will  increase 
the  weight  by  several  pounds.  Hook  it  to  one  of  the 
middle  notches,  and  try  to  move  your  arm  as  before. 
It  will  be  hard  work  now  to  keep  the  stick  horizontal ; 
even  a  strong  man  will  find  that  the  effort  reacts  power- 
fully on  his  lungs :  he  will  puff  as  if  the  respiratory 
engine  were  working  under  high  pressure.  On  the 
same  principle,  the  lungs  of  a  half-drowned  man  may 
be  set  awork  by  moving  the  arms  up  and  down  like 
pump-handles.  But  the  weighted  stick,  bearing  against 
the  sinews  of  the  fore-arm,  still  increases  this  effect,  and 


138  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

overcomes  the  stricture  of  the  asthmatic  spasm,  as  the 
movement  of  the  loose  arms  relieves  the  torpor  of  the 
drowning-asphyxia.  With  the  aid  of  this  mechanical 
palliative  (for  death  is  the  only  radical  asthma-cure)  the 
distress  of  the  spasm  can  be  relieved  before  the  actual 
dyspnoea  or  breathlessness  has  begun,  and,  after  ten  or 
twelve  resolute  efforts,  the  feeling  of  oppression  will 
generally  subside  and  the  lungs  resume  their  work  as  if 
nothing  had  happened.  Daily  exercise  with  the  balance- 
stick  is  sure  to  dimmish  the  frequency  of  the  attacks,  and, 
if  begun  in  time,  would  probably  cure  children  from 
an  hereditary  tendency  of  this  sort.  Two  years  ago  I 
sent  this  receipt  to  an  asthma-martyr  whom  the  narcotic- 
vapor  cure  did  not  save  from  a  weekly  repetition  of  all 
the  horrors  of  strangulation.  He  has  now  lengthened 
the  period  of  his  complaint  from  a  week  to  an  average 
of  forty  days,  and  assured  me  that  even  a  few  minutes' 
exercise  with  a  six-pound  weight  has  saved  him  many  a 
sleepless  night. 

Lifting  and  carrying  weights  was  a  favorite  exercise 
with  the  ancient  athletes,  and  our  modern  rustics  are 
still  very  apt  to  estimate  a  man's  strength  by  his  lifting 
capacity.  The  "best  man"  of  a  Yorkshire  parish  is 
generally  he  who  can  shoulder  the  heaviest  bag  and 
carry  it  farthest  and  with  the  firmest  step.  Feats  of 
this  sort  require  certainly  a  sound  constitution  in  every 
way ;  weak  lungs,  especially,  are  sure  to  tell,  but  the 
main  strain  bears  upon  the  thighs  and  the  small  of  the 
back :  a  good  lifter  has  to  be  a  strong-boned  man,  and 
will  generally  make  a  good  wrestler  and  rider.  Weak- 
backed  children  will,  therefore,  derive  much  benefit 
from  the  various  exercises  with  hand-weights  and  lift- 
ing-straps, and,  indeed,  from  any  labor  involving  the 
addition  of  an  extra  burden  to  the  natural  weight  of 


GYMNASTICa  139 

the  body.  Heavy  lifts  require  some  precaution  against 
strains — a  waist-belt,  and  unflinching  steadiness  in  ris- 
ing from  a  stooping  position ;  but  it  should  be  remem- 
bered that  rupture  (hernia) — generally  ascribed  to  the 
effects  of  over-lifts — results  more  frequently  from  the 
shock  of  a  fall,  and  a  predisposing  defect  of  the  ab- 
dominal teguments.  The  history  of  the  lifting-cure 
records  not  a  single  instance  of  a  rupture  having  origi- 
nated from  the  often  enormous  feats  of  professional 
gymnasts,  or  the  more  dangerous  efforts  of  enthusiastic 
beginners.  As  a  general  rule,  it  may  be  relied  upon 
that  a  perfectly  sound  child  can  not  over-lift  himself 
before  his  strength  gives  way — I  mean,  before  the  yield- 
ing of  his  muscles  and  sinews  simply  compels  him  to 
drop  the  burden.  Here,  too,  the  achievements  of  an- 
cient and  modem  Samsons  illustrate  the  tenacity  of  the 
human  frame  and  its  marvelous  capacity  for  develop- 
ment. The  credibility  of  the  Gaza  story  depends  some- 
what upon  the  size  of  those  city  gates ;  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  Thomas  Topham,  of  Surrey,  once  shouldered 
a  sentry-box  containing  a  stove,  a  bench,  and  a  sleeping 
watchman,  and  carried  his  burden  to  a  suburban  ceme- 
tery. Dr.  Winship,  of  Boston,  lifted  twenty-nine  hun- 
dred pounds  with  the  aid  of  shoulder-straps ;  and,  un- 
less the  historians  of  Magna  Graecia  were  afflicted  with 
an  abnormal  development  of  the  myth-making  faculty, 
it  would  seem  that  their  countryman  Milo  carried  a 
bull-calf  around  the  arena,  and  thus  carried  it  every  day 
till  he  could  tote  a  full-grown  steer.  If  the  story  is 
even  half  true,  we  need  not  wonder  that  Milo's  powers 
as  a  wrestler  put  a  temporary  stop  to  that  sport  as  a 
branch  of  the  Olympian  games,  since  "  no  man  or  god 
durst  accept  his  challenge." 

Wrestling  is  still  the  chief  accomplishment  of  the 


140  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Swiss  village  champions,  and  would  be  the  favorite 
pastime  of  our  rural  districts  if  it  had  not  been  kept 
down  by  our  sickly  prejudice  against  all  rough-and- 
ready  sports.  Fifteen  centuries  ago  the  Olympic  games 
were  abolished  by  the  decree  of  a  Christian  emperor ; 
the  moralists  of  Old  England  have  tabooed  pugilism ; 
our  Sabbatarians  now  include  even  wrestling  among  the 
"  blackguard  sports  "  ;  and  Frederick  Gerstaecker  pre- 
dicts that  the  American  Inquisition  of  a  future  century 
will  suppress  skating  and  ball-playing  "as  giving  an 
undue  ascendency  to  the  animal  energies  over  the  moral 
part  of  our  nature."  For  such  a  century's  sake  we 
should  hope  that  the  Patagonian  savages  will  prove  un- 
conquerable, for  a  year's  life  among  healthy  beasts  would 
be  a  blessed  relief  from  a  long  sojourn  in  the  land  of  an 
unmanned  nation. 

But  I  trust  that  the  propaganda  of  the  Turnbund 
will  save  us  from  such  a  fate.  What  a  stimulus  it 
would  give  to  manly  sports  and  manly  virtues,  nay,  to 
the  physical  regeneration  of  the  human  race,  if  we  could 
make  their  yearly  assembly  a  national  festival !  The 
river-meadows  of  Chattanooga,  or  the  mountain  amphi- 
theatre near  Huntsville,  Alabama,  would  make  a  first- 
class  Olympia,  and  our  Indian  summer  would  be  a 
ready-made  "weather-truce,"  without  an  expensive 
burnt-offering  to  the  sun.  Olives,  it  is  true,  do  not 
flourish  on  our  soil ;  our  mercenary  souls  need  other 
inducements ;  but  the  rent  of  reserved  seats  and  camp- 
tents  would  enable  us  to  gild  the  crowns  of  the  several 
victors.  Imagine  the  athletes  of  every  village  training 
for  those  prizes — thousands  of  boy-topers  turning  gym- 
nasts, ward  delegates  running  for  something  besides 
office,  and  the  members  of  a  Young  Men's  Association 
seeking  paradise  on  this  side  of  the  grave ! 


GYMNASTICS. 

With  the  decadence  of  athletic  sports,  games  of 
skill  come  generally  into  favor ;  hence,  perhaps,  the  re- 
vival of  archery  in  the  United  States,  and  the  pandemic 
spread  of  certain  amusements  which  are  properly 
ladies'  plays.  Hiding  has  gone  almost  out  of  fashion, 
though  few  sportsmen  will  gainsay  me  if  I  assert  that 
a  day  in  the  saddle  is  worth  a  week  of  other  sedentary 
pursuits.  A  Mexican  boy  would  part  as  soon  with  an 
arm  as  with  his  horse,  and  I  never  saw  a  finer  picture  of 
exultant  health  than  a  cavalcade  of  muchachos  dashing 
out  into  the  prairie  at  full  speed,  whooping  and  cheer- 
ing, though  perhaps  on  their  way  to  school  or  to  &fim- 
cion  of  some  national  saint.  The  deportment  of  such 
little  equestrians  is  distinguished  by  a  certain  chivalrous 
frankness,  and  the  word  chivalry  itself,  as  well  as  the 
German  Hitter  ("  caballero "),  was  originally  derived 
from  horse-riding.  The  rider's  mangement  of  his  nag 
may  tend  to  develop  the  domineering,  the  princely 
traits  of  human  nature,  though  probably  at  the  expense 
of  a  humbler  virtue  or  two ;  in  Spanish  America,  at 
least,  the  experience  of  Indian  agents  and  Indian 
school-teachers  has  shown  that  the  pedestrian  red-skins 
are  generally  more  manageable  than  their  mounted  com- 
padres. 

The  lovers  of  aquatic  sports  may  combine  a  useful 
accomplishment  with  the  best  relief  from  the  midsum- 
mer martyrdom  of  our  large  cities.  The  art  of  swim- 
ming adds  as  much  to  the  pleasure  of  bathing  as  it  does 
to  its  healthf ulness ;  but  it  has  often  puzzled  me  that 
with  the  human  animal  that  should  be  an  art  which  is 
a  natural  faculty  of  aU  other  mammals.  Dr.  Anders- 
son's  theory  is  probably  the  right  solution  of  the  riddle. 
He  noticed  that  to  the  young  negroes  of  Sierra  Leone 
swimming  comes  almost  as  natural  as  walking  (in  which 


142  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

attainment  they  are  also  rather  precocious),  and  he  con- 
cludes that  the  disability  of  a  white  man's  child  arises 
chiefly  from  a  general  want  of  vigor.  Our  mobile  arms 
and  paddle-like  hands  are  better  swimming  implements 
than  the  drumstick  legs  of  a  dog;  but  our  muscular 
debility  more  than  counteracts  these  advantages.  The 
limbs  of  a  child  are  swathed,  confined  in  tight  clothes, 
kept  year  after  year  in  compulsive  inactivity,  till,  in 
proportion  to  its  size,  the  nursling  of  civilization  is  the 
weakliest  of  living  creatures.  After  exercise  has  de- 
veloped the  defective  muscles,  a  swimmer  can  hardly 
understand  how  he  could  ever  be  in  dread  of  deep 
water,  swimming  seems  so  easy  :  the  faculty  of  floating, 
as  it  appears  to  him,  is  an  inalienable  attribute  of  a 
human  creature,  requiring  neither  art  nor  anything  like 
a  great  effort  except  in  swimming  against  the  stream ; 
he  would  undertake  to  study,  read,  or  dream  in  a  calm 
sea,  and  let  the  body  take  care  of  itself.  The  Mar- 
quesas-Islanders witnessed  the  struggles  of  a  sinking 
English  sailor  with  mute  astonishment,  and  neglected 
to  help  him,  utterly  incapable  of  realizing  the  fact  that 
a  full-grown  man  could  be  in  danger  of  drowning. 

In  sixteen  provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire  every 
larger  town  had  a  free  bath  or  two,  and  our  entire  neg- 
lect of  this  branch  of  public  hygiene  is  certainly  the 
ugliest  feature  of  our  boasted  civilization ;  but  our  chil- 
dren at  least  might  make  shift  with  the  natural  bathing 
facilities  which  can  be  reached  by  a  short  excursion  be- 
yond the  precincts  of  all  but  the  unluckiest  cities.  A 
cool  bath  at  the  end  of  a  sweltering  day  can  be  delight- 
ful enough  to  reconcile  a  poor  city  slave  to  his  misery ; 
the  sensation  of  floating  along  with  the  rhythm  of  a 
dancing  current  admits  no  comparison  with  any  terra 
firma  pleasure,  and  awakens  instincts  of  the  human  soul 


GYMNASTICS.  143 

which  may  date  from  the  life  of  our  marine  ancestors 
in  the  days  of  the  Devonian  fore-world.  But  such  en- 
joyments are  the  privilege  of  the  aquatic  gymnast,  and 
no  swimmer  should  deem  it  below  his  dignity  to  imitate 
the  example  of  the  elder  Cato,  who  taught  his  sons  to 
dive  and  traverse  rapid  rivers.  I  know  that  a  swim- 
ming-school is  not  always  a  favorite  resort  of  a  young 
child ;  weakly  youngsters  are  apt  to  prefer  a  sponge- 
bath  ;  but  I  agree  with  the  Baptists,  that  immersion 
alone  will  save  us.  The  way  of  the  beginner  is  hard, 
but  the  reward  is  worth  the  price.  No  boy  who  has 
learned  to  "  tread  water  "  or  to  "  take  a  header  "  from  a 
high  bank  would  exchange  the  wild  joy  of  his  sport  for 
all  the  taffy  of  a  tame  Sunday-school  picnic.  And  it  is 
a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  hardy  habits  would 
harden  the  character ;  on  the  contrary,  the  bravest  lad 
of  a  parish  can  generally  be  known  by  his  cheerfulness 
and  his  frank  good-nature,  and  in  after-years  will  be  apt 
to  meet  the  billows  of  life  with  a  joyous  zeal  rather 
than  with  a  shivering  "  resignation."  I  am  often 
tempted  to  quote  the  remark  of  a  French  training-ship 
surgeon,  of  blunt  speech,  but  with  a  sharp  eye  for  the 
character-traits  of  his  young  countrymen :  "  If  I  had 
my  own  way,"  said  he,  "every  boy  in  the  marine 
should  serve  an  apprenticeship  in  the  rigging,  and  learn 
to  rough  it  before  he  gets  a  soft  berth.  The  lads  that 
have  grown  up  before  the  mast  make  the  best  men  in 
every  sense  of  the  word,  brave,  honest  fellows  most  of 
them ;  while  the  cabin-boys,  who  have  been  pampered 
with  tidbits  and  soft  jobs  generally,  turn  out "  (I  won't 
risk  a  literal  translation)  "  prevaricating  puppies,"  or 
words  to  that  effect. 

Per  aspera  ad  astra,  and  a  very  important  branch 
of  gymnastic  education  might  be  included  under  the 


144  PHYSICAt  EDUCATION. 

head  of  hard  work  or  voluntary  labor.  Labor  with  a 
practical  purpose  is  not  only  more  visibly  useful  but 
more  agreeable  than  mere  crank-work  at  the  horizontal 
bar,  and  it  is  sometimes  advisable  to  beguile  ourselves 
into  a  strenuous  and  long-continued  physical  effort. 
For  what  we  call  vice  or  evil  propensities  is  often  noth- 
ing but  misdirected  energy,  vital  force  exploding  in  the 
wrong  direction  for  want  of  a  better  outlet.  The  sensi- 
ble remedy  is  not  to  anathematize  such  energies,  but  to 
let  our  muscular  system  absorb  them  by  engaging  in 
some  entertaining  out-door  business  requiring  a  good 
deal  of  heavy  work.  In  summer-time  there  will  be  no 
lack  of  such  jobs :  interest  your  enfant  terrible  in  hor- 
ticulture ;  make  him  transplant  shade-trees  and  dig 
ditches ;  send  him  to  the  gravel-pit,  and  let  him  fill  his 
wheelbarrow  with  sand  and  his  pockets  with  geological 
specimens.  Or  enlist  his  constructiveness :  set  him  to 
build  a  garden-wall,  and  quarry  his  own  building  mate- 
rial in  the  next  ravine.  During  the  progress  of  the 
good  work  the  hours  will  vanish  magically,  and  so  will 
the  evil  propensities.  Novel-reading  girls  can  generally 
be  cured  with  a  butterfly-catcher ;  entomology  and  sen- 
timental ism  are  not  concomitant  manias. 

It  has  often  been  observed  as  a  curious  phenomenon 
that  the  vilest  young  hoodlums  are  found  in  the  middle- 
sized  towns.  I  believe  I  could  suggest  an  explanation  : 
In  very  large  cities,  as  well  as  in  the  woods  and  mount- 
ains, they  find  something  else  to  do.  A  New  York 
street  Arab  is  often  addicted  to  sharp  practice,  but  not; 
often  to  degrading  vices.  He  can't  afford  to  be  vicious : 
sensuality  weakens ;  physical  vigor  is  a  stock-in-trade ; 
the  fierceness  of  competition  compels  him  to  use  every 
advantage.  For  the  same  reason  a  training  oarsman  is 
generally  an  exemplar  of  all  manly  virtues;  to  him 


GYMNASTICS. 

experience  has  demonstrated  the  temporal  disadvan- 
tages of  vice,  an  argument  whose  cogency  somehow 
conquers  objections  that  resist  the  most  eloquent  arpu- 
menta  ad  fidem.  Moreover,  such  virtues  with  a  busi- 
ness purpose  are  liable  to  become  habits.  If  we  could 
keep  a  record  of  the  longevity  of  our  university  crews, 
we  would  probably  find  that  the  victors  outlive  the 
often  vanquished ;  the  champions  of  Oiympia  (with  the 
exception  of  the  cestus-fighters)  generally  atfained  to  a 
good  old  age. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  pity  that  oar-contests  should  be  con- 
fined to  our  lake-shore  cities  and  a  few  college  towns ; 
as  an  athletic  exercise  rowing  is  out  and  out  superior  to 
ball-playing  and  skating,  and  a  sovereign  remedy  for 
many  disorders  of  the  respiratory  organs.  Venice  has 
all  the  topographical  characteristics  of  a  consumption 
town — stagnant  lagoons,  damp  buildings,  dark  and  nar- 
row streets — and  yet  the  lower  classes  of  her  population 
are  remarkably  free  from  pulmonary  affections — they 
have  a  gondolier  in  nearly  ever  family.  The  watermen 
of  the  Thames,  too,  are  generally  long-lived,  in  spite  of 
being  so  much  exposed  to  wet  and  cold.  If  I  had  to 
limit  a  child  to  two  kinds  of  out-door  exercises,  I  would 
choose  running  and  rowing :  the  one  does  for  the  legs 
and  the  stomach  what  the  other  does  for  the  arms  and 
the  lungs. 

It  is  said  that  Cyrus  advised  his  countrymen  "never 
to  eat  but  after  labor,"  and,  as  a  general  rule,  the  best 
time  for  out-door  exercise  is  certainly  rather  before  than 
after  meals;  but  gymnastics  of  the  heroic  kind  may 
induce  a  degree  of  fatigue  which  decreases  the  appetite 
instead  of  stimulating  it,  and  in  summer  it  is  by  far  the 
best  plan  to  take  the  last  meal  in  the  afternoon,  and 
postpone  athletic  sports  to  the  cooler  hours  of  the  even- 
7 


146  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

ing.  In  moonlit  nights,  out-door  games  may  be  con- 
tinued for  several  hours  after  sunset.  A  nearly  infalli- 
ble receipt  for  pleasant  dreams  is  a  light  supper,  followed 
by  competitive  gymnastics  in  the  presence  of  (some- 
body's) sisters  and  cousins.  In  stress  of  circumstances, 
though,  the  fair  witnesses  can  be  dispensed  with.  Even 
an  in-door  gymnasium  will  answer  the  main  purpose ; 
it  is  the  relaxation  of  the  strained  sinews  which  makes 
rest  sweet*  the  soul  seems  to  revel  in  a  conscious  sense 
of  health  to  come.  It  is  a  fact  that  a  man  may  be  "  too 
tired  to  sleep " ;  but  that  sort  of  insomnia  is  always  a 
sign  of  general  debility.  Our  latter-day  sports  are  not 
likely  to  hurt  a  healthy  boy  through  excess  of  exercise. 
We  hear  of  people  having  "  killed  themselves  with  hard 
work  " ;  but,  if  their  habits  were  otherwise  correct  and 
their  diet  not  altogether  insufficient,  they  must  have 
worked  hard  indeed,  and  with  suicidal  intent,  I  am 
tempted  to  say,  as  we  have  no  single  word  for  Lebens- 
mude — the  reckless  contempt  of  life  which  can  make 
men  deaf  to  the  voice  of  their  physical  conscience.  The 
Manitoba  lumbermen  ply  their  hard  trade  cheerfully 
for  ten  hours  a  day  for  months  together,  and  the  pas- 
toral nomads  of  the  Caspian  steppes  often  keep  their 
boys  in  the  saddle  for  two  days  and  two  nights. 

It  can  do  no  harm  to  let  girls  join  in  the  athletic 
sports  of  their  brothers ;  though  in  their  case  an  har- 
monious structural  development  is  of  more  importance 
than  the  attainment  of  muscular  strength.  Their  natu- 
ral vocation  exempts  them  from  the  necessity  of  engag- 
ing in  violent  exercises,  and  the  experience  of  every 
nation  has  confirmed  the  somewhat  obscure  biological 
fact  that  a  child's  bodily  constitution  depends  chieflv  on 
that  of  his  paternal  relatives.  A  weakling  can  never 
become  the  father  of  robust  children ;  while  a  delicate 


GYMNASTICS. 


147 


but  otherwise  healthy  woman  may  give  birth  to  an 
infant  Hercules.  But,  for  boys,  the  most  thorough 
physical  education  is  the  best ;  a  child  can  never  be  too 
weakly  to  profit  by  gymnastic  exercises.  If  the  culture 
of  the  bodily  faculties  were  made  a  regular  branch  of 
public  education,  robust  strength  would  be  the  rule  and 
debility  the  rare  exception.  The  puniness  and  sickli- 
ness  of  the  vast  plurality  of  our  city  boys  are  indeed 
something  altogether  abnormal.  If  our  primogenitor 
(as  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt)  surpassed  the  other  pri- 
mates of  the  animal  kingdom  in  strength  as  much  as  he 
still  exceeds  them  in  size,  he  must  have  been  fully  able 
to  hold  his  own  against  any  beast  of  prey.  Dr.  Clarke 
Abel's  undoubtedly  authentic  description  of  an  orang- 
outang hunt  near  Rangoon,  on  the  northwest  coast  of 
Sumatra,  reads  like  an  episode  from  the  "  Lay  of  the 
Nibelungen,"  rather  than  like  the  account  of  a  con- 
scientious and  scientific  observer.  With  five  bullets  in 
his  body,  the  hairy  half-man  still  leaped  from  tree  to 
tree  with  the  agility  of  a  panther,  survived  the  fall  of 
the  last  tree,  and,  though  crippled  by  a  shower  of  blows, 
snatched  a  spear  from  the  hands  of  his  chief  assailant 
and  broke  it  like  a  rotten  stick.  On  his  campaign 
against  a  horde  of  northern  barbarians,  one  of  Trajan's 
generals  attempted  to  scare,  or  at  least  to  astonish,  the 
natives  by  shipping  a  troop  of  lions  across  the  Danube. 
But  the  children  of  Nature  declined  to  marvel :  "  They 
mistook  them  for  dogs,"  says  the  historian,  "  and 
knocked  their  brains  out."  Even  after  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century  the  levy  of  a  small  German 
burgh  could  turn  out  more  athletes  than  the  combined 
armies  of  the  present  empire ;  the  Margrave  of  Nurem- 
berg could  at  any  time  muster  ten  thousand  men,  every 
one  of  whom  was  able  to  wear  and  use  accoutrements 


148  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

that  would  crush  a  so-called  strong  man  of  the  present 
day.  In  the  armories  of  Yienna,  Brunswick,  and  Stras- 
burg  there  are  coats  of  mail  which  a  modern  porter 
would  hesitate  to  shoulder  without  the  assistance  of  a 
comrade. 

And  yet  these  mediaeval  Samsons  were  the  exclusive 
product  of  the  drill-ground ;  physical  vigor  was  not 
valued  as  the  foundation  of  health  and  happiness,  but 
rather  as  a  means  of  military  efficiency ;  the  guardians 
of  public  education  merely  connived  at  such  things  ; 
and,  when  the  invention  of  gunpowder  diminished  the 
importance  of  personal  prowess,  our  anti-natural  dog- 
mas accomplished  their  tendency  in  the  rapid  physical 
corruption  of  their  devotees.  The  dull  and  gloomy 
slavery  of  the  monasteries  was  transferred  to  the  man- 
agement of  all  educational  institutions  ;  for  several  cen- 
turies the  bodily  rights  of  the  poor  convent-pupils  were 
not  only  disregarded  but  willfully  depreciated.  Edu- 
cational influences  became  the  chief  cause  of  physical 
degeneracy,  and  the  superficialness  of  our  reformatory 
measures  proves  that  we  have  not  yet  recognized  the 
root  of  the  evil. 

But  the  voice  of  Nature  has  repeated  its  protest  in 
the  yearnings  of  every  new  generation.  Our  children 
still  long  for  out-door  life,  for  active  exercise,  for  the 
free  development  of  every  bodily  faculty ;  and,  if  we 
cease  to  suppress  those  instincts,  the  regenerative  ten- 
dency of  Nature  will  soon  assert  itself,  and  the  time 
may  come  when  man  will  be  once  more  the  physical  as 
well  as  mental  superior  of  his  fellow-creatures. 


CHAPTER  V. 
CLOTHING. 

"  No  better  traveling  habit  than  hardy  habit*."— SIR  SAMUEL  BAKER. 

THE  capacity  of  our  ancestors  to  accommodate  them- 
selves to  every  climate  depended  not  only  on  their 
physiological  faculty  of  adaptation,  but  also  on  their 
skill  in  protecting  themselves  by  artificial  means  from 
the  inclemency  of  the  higher  latitudes.  Houses  and 
clothes  are  a  blessing  if  they  answer  this  purpose  by  a 
close  imitation  of  Nature's  own  plan  in  sheltering  her 
children  from  atmospheric  vicissitudes ;  but  in  degree 
as  they  deviate  from  that  plan  their  hygienic  disad- 
vantages balance,  or  even  outweigh,  the  gain  in  other 
respects.  A  swallow's  nest  protects  her  brood  from 
cold  and  rain  without  debarring  them  from  the  fresh 
air;  a  human  domicile,  too,  should  combine  comfort 
with  the  advantage  of  perfect  ventilation ;  and  our 
clothes,  like  the  fur  of  a  squirrel  or  the  feather-mantle 
of  a  hawk,  should  keep  us  warm  and  dry  without  inter- 
fering with  the  cutaneous  excretions  and  the  free  move- 
ment of  our  limbs. 

Measured  by  these  standards,  the  winter  dress  of  an 
American  school-boy  is  nearly  the  best,  the  summer 
dress  of  the  average  American,  French,  and  German 
nursling  about  the  worst,  that  could  possibly  be  devised. 
At  an  age  when  the  rapid  development  of  the  \\ ' 
organism  requires  the  utmost  freedom  of  movcnunt, 


150  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

our  children  are  kept  in  the  fetters  of  garments  that 
check  the  activity  of  the  body  in  every  way  :  swad- 
dling-clothes, undershirts,  overshirts,  neck  -  wrappers, 
trailing  gowns,  garnitures,  flounces,  and  shawls  reduce 
the  helpless  homunculus  to  a  bundle  of  dry  goods,  un- 
able to  move  or  turn,  incapable  of  relieving  or  intimat- 
ing its  uneasiness  in  any  way  save  by  the  use  of  its 
squealing  apparatus,  and  consequently  squealing  vio- 
lently from  morning  till  night.  Out -doors,  in  the 
baby-carriage,  "cold  draughts"  have  to  be  guarded 
against,  and  a  load  of  extra  wrappers  completely  coun- 
teract the  benefit  of  the  fresh  air;  faint  with  nausea 
and  suffocating  heat  the  little  mummy  lies  motionless 
on  its  back,  resplendent  in  its  white  surplice,  a  fit  can- 
didate for  the  honors  of  a  life  whose  every  movement 
of  a  natural  impulse  will  be  suppressed  as  a  revival 
of  barbarism  and  an  insurrection  against  the  statutes- 
of  an  orthodox  community.  Hence,  in  a  great  degree, 
the  disproportionate  mortality,  in  all  northern  countries 
of  Christendom,  among  infants  under  two  years.  In 
Spanish  America,  where  infantile  diseases  are  as  rare 
as  in  Hindostan,  babies  of  all  classes  and  all  sizes  toddle 
about  naked,  nearly  the  year  round  ;  and  the  Indians  of 
Tamaulipas,  between  Tampico  and  Matamoras,  raise  an 
astonishing  number  of  brown  bantlings  who  are  never 
troubled  with  clothes  till  they  are  big  enough  to  carry 
garden-stuff  to  a  city  where  the  police  enforces  the 
apron  regulation. 

But  Mrs.  Grundy — a  person's  pinafore — and  the 
carpet?  "Well,  get  a  lot  of  short  linen  hose,  rather 
loose  about  the  hips  and  tied  around  the  waist  or 
buttoned  to  the  skirts  of  a  short  frock.  Change  them 
as  often  as  you  like.  Wholesale  they  could  be  made 
for  a  dollar  and  washed  for  a  quarter  a  dozen.  Out- 


CLOTHING.  1 ;,  ] 

doors  add  a  pair  of  stockings  with  canvas  soles,  and 
perhaps  little  rubber  boots  on  wet  days,  but  no  cap  or 
shawl  before  October,  and  under  no  circumstances  any 
swaddles  or  baby  night-gowns.  Let  us  get  rid  of  the 
"  draught "  superstition ;  catarrhs  are  not  taken  by  any 
creature  of  the  open  air,  not  by  the  fisherman's  boy, 
paddling  around  in  the  surf  and  sitting  barefooted  in  a 
wet  canoe  or  bareheaded  on  the  windward  cliffs,  but  by 
the  cachectic  cadets  of  the  tenement-barracks,  where 
the  same  air  is  breathed  and  rebreathed  by  the  diseased 
lungs  of  a  regiment  of  voluntary  prisoners.* 

After  the  first  frost,  a  cap  with  ear-flaps,  double 
stockings,  and  mittens  out-doors  can  do  no  harm.  A 
warm  shirt  and  two  quilt-blankets  will  be  enough  in 
all  but  the  coldest  nights,  and  (if  I  had  not  seen  the 
thing  done  I  should  commit  an  outrage  on  common 
sense  by  thinking  it  necessary  to  mention  it)  the  i 
of  a  sleeping  child  should  never  be  covered  with  :i 
shawl,  nor — when  flies  are  very  troublesome — with 
anything  thicker  than  the  lightest  gauze  handkerchief. 
"  A  great  store  of  clothes,"  says  Lord  Bacon,  "  either 
upon  the  bed  or  the  back,  relaxes  the  body";  and 
every  observant  parent  must  have  noticed  that  school- 
children complain  a  hundred  times  of  being  overdressed 
for  once  that  they  ask  for  additional  or  warmer  cloth- 
ing. Indeed,  only  dire  habit  can  reconcile  us  to  tin- 
mass  of  trappings  and  wrappings  which  fashion  and 
effeminacy  load  us  with.  Five  hundred  millions  of 
fellow-men  wear  scarcely  any  clothing— not  in  Afnc 

*  « I  shall  not  attempt  to  explain  why  '  damp  clothes '  occasion  coWs 
rather  than  wet  ones,  because  I  doubt  the  fact.     I  imagine  t 
the  one  nor  the  other  contributes  to  this  effect,  and  that  1 
colds  are  totally  independent  of  wet  and  even  of  cold."- 

"  Essays,"  p.  216.) 


152  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

and  Southern  Asia  only,  but  in  cold  Patagonia  and  the 
by  no  means  genial  latitudes  of  the  Norfolk  Islands. 
The  mantle  of  the  Eoman  peasant  was  laid  aside  in 
cold  weather  and  generally  at  the  beginning  of  the 
day's  work.  The  sculptures  of  Home  and  Greece 
abound  with  the  representations  of  nude  hunters, 
shepherds,  and  artisans.  On  the  friezes  of  Pompey 
and  the  countless  vases  and  entablatures  of  the  Museo 
Borbonico  and  the  Vatican  collection,  children,  almost 
without  any  exception,  appear  in  naturalibus.  The 
very  word  gymnasium  was  derived  from  yvpvoa;  naked; 
and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  toga  virilis, 
like  the  toga  prcetexta,  was  worn  only  on  state  occasions. 
Henry's  "  History  of  Great  Britain  "  (vol.  i,  pp.  468, 
469)  leaves  hardly  any  doubt  that  the  ancient  Britons, 
Picts,  and  Scots  were  either  wholly  or  almost  naked, 
"unless  their  custom  of  painting  their  bodies  can  be 
considered  as  clothing."  Nor  did  the  south  Britons 
and  Romans  go  naked  from  poverty,  like  Darwin's 
Firelanders.  They  had  clothes,  but  they  reserved  them 
for  emergencies,  and,  though  our  advanced  notions  of 
decency  and  cleanliness  might  not  permit  us  to  emulate 
their  example,  I  suspect  that,  from  May  to  November, 
the  lightest  suit  of  clothes  is,  from  an  hygienic  stand- 
point, about  the  best.  The  body  breathes  through  the 
pores  as  well  as  through  the  lungs,  and  heavy  garments 
obstruct  the  cutaneous  exhalations  quite  as  much  as  the 
atmosphere  of  an  over-heated  room  impedes  the  proc- 
ess of  respiration,  and  it  has  been  found  by  actual 
experiments  that  the  weight  of  a  mantle  or  heavy  coat 
with  woolen  shirts  and  other  underwear  diminishes  the 
respiratory  capacity  of  the  lungs  from  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  per  cent.  (Coale's  "  Hints  on  Health,"  p.  104.) 
Besides,  it  seems  that  fresh  air  exercises  on  the 


CLOTHING.  153 

human  skin  a  certain  tonic  influence,  of  which  thu 
wearer  of  thick  woolen  garments  deprives  his  body. 
Benjamin  Franklin  proposed  to  prevent  colds,  and 
even  small-pox,  by  air-baths,  and  found  that  he  could 
relieve  insomnia  by  simply  removing  the  bedclothes 
for  a  couple  of  minutes.  "  I  rise  early  almost  every 
morning,"  says  he,  "and  sit  in  my  chamber  without 
any  clothes  whatever,  half  an  hour  or  an  hour,  accord- 
ing to  the  season,  either  reading  or  writing.  This 
practice  is  not  the  least  painful  but,  on  the  contrary, 
agreeable,  and  if  I  return  to  bed  afterward,  before  I 
dress  myself,  as  it  sometimes  happens,  I  make  a  supple- 
ment to  my  night's  rest  of  one  or  two  hours  of  the 
most  pleasing  sleep  that  can  be  imagined.  ("  A  New 
Mode  of  Bathing,"  Franklin's  "  Essays,"  p.  215.) 

Nor  should  we  forget  the  incidental  advantages  of 
hardy  habits,  their  invigorating  influence  on  the  con- 
stitution in  general  and  on  the  digestive  system  in 
particular,  nor  the  fact  that  effeminacy  defeats  its  own 
object  and  exposes  its  slaves  to  sufferings  unknown  to 
the  sons  of  the  wilderness.  He  who  restricts  himself 
to  a  minimum  of  clothes  in  summer-time  will  find  an 
extra  shirt  or  a  plaid  and  a  pair  of  mittens  a  raffiefent 
protection  from  almost  any  weather.  The  Indians  of 
the  Tehuantepec  highlands,  who  work  the  year  round 
in  a  breech-clout  and  a  palmetto  hat,  ascend  the  icy 
summit  regions  of  the  Sierra  Madro  with  a  threadbaro 
blanket  as  their  only  cover  from  cold  winds  and  night 
frosts ;  and  our  own  red-skins  prefer  an  old  buffalo- 
robe  to  the  best  tight-fitting  garments,  and  invariably 
tear  the  seams  of  the  store-clothes  they  buy  at  the 
post-agencies—to  make  them  "lighter,"  ventilate  tlu-m. 
as  it  were.  Nay,  the  post-trader  of  Fort  Richardson, 
on  the  upper  Brazos,  assured  mo  that  his  Kiowa  cos- 


154:  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

tomers  never  bought  a  suit  of  clothes  without  cutting 
the  seat  out  of  the  pantaloons  and  slitting  the  coats 
from  the  armpits  down  to  the  skirts ! 

If  an  out-door  laborer  leaves  a  warm  house  on  a 
cold  morning,  the  first  contact  with  the  open  air  is 
anything  but  agreeable,  but  after  half  an  hour's  exer- 
cise the  body  warms  up  from  within,  and  this  animal 
caloric  can  make  a  heavy  suit  of  clothes  as  oppressive 
in  winter  as  in  midsummer ;  the  gaseous  excretions  of 
the  skin,  after  saturating  the  confined  air,  are  condensed 
and  thus  effectually  checked — the  body  has  to  forego 
the  benefits  of  cutaneous  respiration.  And  herein  con- 
sists the  difference  between  our  artificial  fleece  and  the 
hairy  coat  of  a  wild  beast :  fur  and  wool  retain  the 
animal  warmth  but  emit  the  cutaneous  vapors ;  a  close 
woven  coat  stops  both.  The  process  of  tanning,  too, 
stops  the  pores  of  the  fur-skin,  and  I  have  often  won- 
dered why  our  dress-reformers  have  never  tried  to  con- 
struct a  fur  coat  on  the  brush-maker's  plan — fastening 
the  hair  in  little  bunches  on  some  strong,  net-like  text- 
ure. By  spreading  outward,  the  hair  would  present 
the  even  surface  of  the  natural  fur,  and  make  such 
a  porous  brush  coat  nearly  as  warm  as  a  common 
pelisse.  Thus  far  the  same  end  has  been  most  nearly 
attained  by  the  triple  blouse  of  the  Havre  'longshore- 
men— three  linen  jackets ;  the  first  and  third  as  smooth 
as  a  shirt,  but  the  middle  one  ruffled,  i.  e.,  gathered  up 
in  a  series  of  open  plaits  like  a  mediaeval  lace  collar. 
This  arrangement  prevents  a  "  tight  fit,"  and  leaves  a 
considerable  space  on  both  sides  of  the  middle  blouse, 
and,  air  being  a  bad  conductor,  the  three  blouses, 
weighing  about  three  pounds  apiece,  are  actually 
warmer  than  a  twelve-pound  overcoat  of  thick  broad- 
cloth, but  fitting  the  back  like  the  cover  of  a  pin-cush- 


CLOTHING. 


i:,:, 


ion.  On  going  to  work,  the  porte-faix  removes  one  or 
two  of  his  blouses,  according  to  the  state  of  the  weather, 
as  the  American  school-boy  takes  off  his  comforter  and 
unbuttons  his  jacket  before  going  in  for  a  snow-ball 
fight.  ( 

A  jacket  or  a  short  blouse  is  out  and  out  more 
sensible  than  our  cumbersome  overcoats  or  the  un- 
speakable tangle-work  of  frippery  and  flounces,  cross- 
and-lengthwise  wrappings,  and  intricate  fastenings  that 
still  form  the  winter  dress  of  a  fashionable  lady.  The 
women  of  Scandinavia  and  New  England  (Jenny  Lind, 
Mrs.  Everett,  Dr.  Mary  Safford-Blake,  etc.)  can  claim 
the  honor  of  having  initiated  the  opposition  movement 
that  bids  fair  to  abate  the  grievance  in  the  course  of 
another  generation  or  two,  having  already  exploded  the 
chief  outrages  on  hygienic  and  artistic  common  sense — 
corsets  and  the  crinoline.  Mrs.  Abba  G.  Woolson's 
"  Dress  Reform  "  should  be  the  sartorial  text-book  of 
every  girl's  mother. 

The  Turks  and  Hollanders,  though  differing  so 
widely  in  their  general  mode  of  life,  agree  in  preferring 
warm  clothes  to  heated  rooms,  and,  when  the  in-door 
atmosphere  can  be  made  tolerable  only  by  air-tight 
window-sashes  and  glowing  stoves,  it  is  a  curious  ques- 
tion whether  a  warmer  dress  would  not,  on  the  whole, 
be  the  lesser  evil.  It  would  save  fuel,  sick-headachea, 
and  constipation,  and  by  adding  or  removing  an  extra 
blouse,  d  la  Normandie,  the  several  occupants  of  a 
moderately  warmed  room  might  exactly  adapt  the  tem- 
perature to  their  individual  feelings.  A  German  au- 
thor, who  admits  hardly  any  excuse  for  excluding  the 
fresh  air  from  a  sitting-room,  proposes  an  ingenious 
remedy  for  cold  hands — the  only  cogent  objection  to 
an  open  study- window :  a  box  writing-desk,  namely, 


156  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

•with  a  double  lid,  the  writing-board  resting  on  top  of  a 
box  full  of  hot  sand,  that  can  be  warmed  in  a  common 
baking-pan  and  warranted  to  retain  its  heat  for  five  or 
six  hours.  A  cold  garret  library  was  Goethe's  favorite 
refuge  from  sick-headaches;  and  the  Chevalier  Edel- 
kranz  reminds  his  fur-loving  countrymen  that,  when  the 
difference  of  temperature  between  the  external  air  and 
that  within-doors  is  inconsiderable,  it  would  be  useful 
to  "  put  on  an  extra  coat  on  returning  home,  instead  of 
doing  it  when  going  out,  since  the  exercise  in  the  open 
air  produces  the  necessary  degree  of  warmth,  which,  in 
the  chamber,  in  a  sedentary  state,  can  only  be  supplied 
by  additional  clothing." 

In  our  climate,  however,  there  are  days  when  a 
child  of  the  Caucasian  race  has  urgent  need  of  all  the 
overcoats  his  shoulders  can  support,  and  the  natives  of 
.  Northern  Michigan  have  taught  their  Saxon  neighbors 
some  useful  lessons  in  the  art  of  surviving  a  Lake  Supe- 
rior snow-storm.  Experience  has  made  them  eschew 
our  common  head-gear  ;  they  wear  "Mackinaw  hoods," 
a  sort  of  monk's  cowl,  buttoned  to  the  mantle-collar 
and  covering  every  part  of  the  face  but  the  eyes  and  a 
small  space  between  the  mouth  and  the  nostrils ;  double 
woolen  mittens,  reaching  half-way  up  to  the  elbow; 
baggy  trousers,  fastened  around  the  ankle,  and  shoes 
that  admit  three  or  four'  pairs  of  worsted  stockings. 
Their  particular  care  seems  to  be  to  protect  the  neck, 
hands,  and  feet ;  and  it  might,  indeed,  be  accepted  as  a 
general  rule  that  the  parts  of  the  body  farthest  from 
the  heart  are  most  liable  to  suffer  from  the  effects  of  a 
low  temperature.  All  extremities — toes,  fingers,  nose, 
and  ears — are  especially  apt  to  get  frost-bitten,  but 
marching  against  a  cold  wind  also  produces  a  peculiarly 
uncomfortable  sensation  about  the  neck,  and  I  can  not 


CLOTHING.  157 

help  thinking  that  there  is  something  wrong  about  our 
fashion  of  cropping  our  boys  like  criminals.  A  good 
head  of  hair  may  be  something  more  than  an  ornamen- 
tal appendage,  and  Nature  seems  to  have  taken  especial 
care  to  protect  the  nape  of  the  neck  in  a  great  number 
of  different  animals.  It  is  certainly  a  suggestive  cir- 
cumstance that  fomenting  the  space  between  the  shoul- 
ders exerts  an  assuaging  effect  on  various  affections  of 
the  respiratory  organs ;  and,  if  I  had  the  care  of  a  boy 
with  an  hereditary  disposition  to  a  pulmonary  disease,  I 
should  feel  strongly  tempted  to  defy  fashion,  and  let 
him  wear  his  hair  d  la  Guido — about  a  foot  long. 

The  canal-laborers  of  Sault  Ste.  Marie  wear  double 
hoods,  and  on  many  days  have  to  stuff  them  with  wool 
to  save  their  ears ;  but,  in  the  more  populous  part  of 
America,  such  days  are  a  rare  exception,  and  south  of 
the  lower  lakes  the  average  school-boy  will  prefer  to 
rough  it  with  a  tippet  shawl  or  a  common  cap  with  a 
pair  of  ear-flaps.  In  regard  to  the  utility  of  woolen 
underclothes,  opinions  are  much  divided:  Carl  Bock 
recommends  worsted  jackets ;  Dr.  Coale  flannel  under- 
shirts and  drawers,  with  extra  breast-pads  in  cold  weath- 
er ;  but  the  hardy  Scandinavians,  Russians,  and  French 
Canadians,  as  well  as  the  great  majority  of  our  German 
population,  still  stick  to  coarse  linen  next  the  skin,  an«l 
use  woolen  pectorals  only  as  counter-irritants  in  rheu- 
matic affections.  Persons  who  can  not  bear  woolm 
underclothes,  I  would  advise  to  try  the  Normandy  plan 
of  ruffled  linen,  which  might  be  applied  even  to  hosiery 
and  drawers.  Chamois-leather,  too,  is  as  warm  as  wool 
and  less  irritating  to  the  skin,  and  has  the  advantage  of 
being  more  durable,  and  withal  cleanlier,  than  the  best 
flannel.  On  stormy  days,  especially  during  the  piercii 
northwest  storms  of  our  prairie  States,  few  children 


158  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

will  object  to  a  Scotch  plaid,  worn  like  a  burnoose,  over 
head  and  shoulders,  or  a  handful  of  wool  stuffed  around 
the  socks  in  a  pair  of  wide  brogans. 

But  at  the  beginning  of  the  warm  season  all  such 
things  ought  to  be  thrown  aside.  A  loose  shirt,  linen 
jacket,  and  short  linen  trousers  are  the  right  summer 
dress  for  a  healthy  boy — a  dalmatica  and  light  straw 
hat  for  a  healthy  girl — in  a  country  where  the  six 
warmest  months  approach  the  isotherms  of  Southern 
Spain.  JSTo  wadded  coats,  no  drawers,  and,  in  the  name 
of  reason,  no  flannels,  nor  shoes  and  stockings,  unless 
the  mud  is  very  deep,  or  the  road  to  school  recently 
macadamized.  The  long-lived  races  of  Eastern  Europe 
would  laugh  at  the  idea  that  the  constitution  of  a  nor- 
mal human  being  could  be  endangered  by  an  April 
shower,  or  that  'in  the  dog-days  "health  and  decency" 
require  a  woolen  cuticle  from  neck  to  foot.  Have  dog- 
mas and  hearsays  entirely  closed  our  senses  to  the  lan- 
guage of  instinct,  to  the  meaning  of  the  discomfort,  the 
distracting  uneasiness  under  the  burden  of  a  load  of 
calorific  covers  and  bandages,  while  every  pore  of  our 
skin  cries  out  for  relief,  for  the  cooling  influence  of  the 
free  open  air  ?  Keep  your  children  under  lock  and  key, 
lest  the  sun  should  spoil  their  complexion  or  their 
morals,  let  them  pass  their  days  in  an  under-ground 
dungeon  like  Kaspar  Hauser,  but  do  not  load  them 
with  woolen  trappings  at  a  time  when  even  a  linen  robe 
becomes  a  Nessus-shirt.  There  is  a  story  of  a  glutton 
being  cured  by  a  friend  who  persuaded  him  to  eat  and 
drink  nothing  for  twenty-four  hours  without  putting  an 
equivalent  in  quantity  and  quality 'into  an  earthern 
crock,  and  the  next  day  made  him  inspect  the  colleo- 
tanea  •  and  on  the  same  principle  a  person  of  common 
sense  might  perhaps  be  redeemed  from  the  slavery  of  the 


CLOTIILV;  1.,;) 

dress-mania,  by  making  him  wrap  up  his  complete  suit 
of  traps  and  weigh  the  bundle :  he  would  find  that  the 
summer  dress  of  a  fashionable  gentleman  outweighs  the 
winter  coat  of  the  most  hirsute  brute  of  the  wilderness. 
A  grizzly  bear,  shorn  to  the  skin,  would  yield  about 
ten  pounds  of  hair  and  wool ;  but  a  dandy's  accoutre- 
ments—  flannel  undershirt,  drawers,  shoes,  stockings, 
starched  overshirt,  waistcoat,  cravat,  black  dress-coat, 
and  pantaloons — would  weigh  at  least  fourteen  pounds. 
Habit  mitigates  the  evil,  though  there  are  times  wlu-n 
the  martyrs  of  fashion  suffer  more  in  a  single  hour  than 
a  ragged  Comanche  in  the  coldest  winter  week ;  but, 
for  boys  and  young  girls,  calorific  food  and  woolen 
clothes  certainly  make  the  sunniest  days  the  saddest  in 
the  year. 

The  vicissitudes  of  the  weather?  It  is  worth  a 
journev  to  Trieste  to  see  the  youngsters  of  the  suburbs 
enjoy  their  evenings  on  the  Capo  Liddo,  the  sandy 
headland  between  the  Pola  pike-road  and  the  harbor 
fortifications  ;  four  or  five  hundred  half-wild  boys, 
splashing  in  the  surf,  throwing  stones,  wrestling,  or 
chasing  each  other  along  the  shore,  all  shouting  and 
cheering,  merry  as  carnivallers,  though  there  is  not  a 
pair  of  shoes  or  a  dozen  hats  in  the  crowd.  Swift- 
footed,  lithe,  and  indefatigable,  they  are  the  very  ] 
ure  of  careless  health  ;  you  can  see  them  at  play  almost 
every  evening,  even  in  winter,  when  the  Tramontane 
raises  the  snow-drifts  of  the  Karst.  They  laugh  at 
summer  showers ;  their  linen  jackets  will  dry  before 
they  get  home.  Sunshine  makes  them  a  holiday  ;  but 
let  your  well-dressed  New  York  or  Paris  school-boy 
join  in  their  sports,  and  examine  his  clothes  after  an 
hour  or  two,  and  see  if  perspiration  has  not  made  his 
undershirts  as -wet  as  any  rain  could  make  his  jacket. 


160  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Decency  ?  Are  the  gambols  of  a  barefoot  boy  more 
unseemly  than  the  contortions  of  a  sun-struck  alderman 
in  his  holiday  dress  ?  Can  ethics  or  aesthetics  be  pro- 
moted by  the  imprecations  of  a  sleepless  victim  of 
flannel  night-shirts  and  closed  bedroom  windows  ?  If 
daily  misery  can  spoil  the  temper  of  a  saint,  the  ladies 
of  the  American  Dress-Reform  are  working  in  the  in- 
terest of  charity  and  good-humor  by  removing  a  chief 
incentive  to  the  opposite  sentiments,  for  the  aggrava- 
tions of  Tantalus  must  have  been  trifling  compared  with 
those  of  an  American  school-girl  d  la  mode,  at  the 
thought  of  a  mountain  meadow  to  run  on  with  naked 
feet  or  a  shady  brook  to  pick  pebbles  from  with  bared 
arms.  Pocahontas,  indeed,  had  no  need  to  envy  the 
"  fair  maids  in  the  land  of  her  lover,"  if  the  fair  ones 
had  to  wear  the  twenty-three  distinct  pieces  of  dry- 
goods  which,  according  to  a  correspondent  of  Yirchow's 
"  Jahresberichte,"  constitute  the  summer  dress  of  the 
average  girl  of  the  period.  The  blind  submission  to 
such  demands  of  fashion  can  be  explained  only  by  a 
long  subjection  of  human  reason  to  authority,  together 
with  that  ridiculous  dread  of  nudity  which  forms  a 
characteristic  feature  of  all  anti-natural  religions.  Ac- 
cording to  the  ethics  of  the  Hebrew-Buddhistic  moral- 
ists, all  naturalia  sunt  turpia;  the  body  is  the  arch- 
enemy of  the  soul,  and  must  be  hidden,  lest  the  children 
of  the  Church  might  be  reminded  of  their  relationship 
to  the  despised  children  of  Nature.  Boys  and  girls 
have  no  vote  in  such  matters,  or  they  would  consent  to 
turn  night  into  day  for  the  sake  of  getting  a  little  ex- 
ercise without  the  dire  alternative  of  sweating  to  death 
or  awakening  the  anathemas  of  Mrs.  Grundy.  The 
misery  reaches  its  climax  in  June,  when  the  warm 
weather  begins  before  the  vacations ;  and  in  midsum- 


CLOTI1ING.  i(ji 

mer  a  person  with  humane  instincts  would  rather  make 
a  wide  detour  than  pass  a  town  school  or  a  cotton-factory 
and  witness  the  triumph  of  our  pious  civilization — tho 
daily  and  intolerable  torture  of  thousands  of  helpless 
children  to  please  an  Old  Hypocrites'  Christian  Asso- 
ciation of  priests  and  prudes ! 

As  houses  have  been  called  exterior  garments,  a 
heavy  suit  of  clothes  might  be  called  a  portable  house 
— a  protective  barrier  between  the  skin  and  the  cold 
air ;  but  in  warm  weather  the  most  effectual  device  for 
diminishing  the  benefit  of  out-door  exercise.  Between 
May  and  October  man  has  to  wear  clothes  enough  to  keep 
the  flies  and  gnats  from  troubling  him  :  a  pair  of  linen 
trousers,  a  shirt,  and  a  light  neckerchief — whatsoever 
is  more  than  these  is  of  evil.  The  best  head-dress  for 
summer  is  our  natural  hair ;  the  next  best  a  light  straw 
hat,  with  a  perforated  crown.  Hats  and  caps,  as  a  pro- 
tection from  the  vicissitudes  of  the  atmosphere,  are  a 
comparatively  recent  invention.  The  Syrians,  Greeks, 
Romans,  Normans,  and  Visigoths  wore  helmets  in  war, 
but  went  uncovered  in  time  of  peace,  in  the  coldest  and 
most  stormy  seasons ;  the  Gauls  and  Egyptians  always 
went  bareheaded,  even  into  battle,  and  a  hundred  years 
after  the  conquest  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses  (B.  o.  525), 
the  sands  of  Pelusium  still  covered  the  well-preeerved 
skulls  of  the  native  warriors,  while  those  of  the  tur- 
baned  Persians  had  crumbled  to  the  jaw-bones.  The 
Emperor  Hadrian  traveled  bareheaded  from  tho  icy 
Alps  to  the  borders  of  Mesopotamia  ;  the  founders  of 
several  monastic  orders  interdicted  all  coverings  for  the 
head  ;  during  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII,  boys  and  young 
men  generally  went  with  the  head  bare,  and  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  this  old  Saxon  custom  Sir  John  Sinclair  * 

*  "Code  of  Health  and  Longevity,"  p.  298. 


1(52  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

ascribes  the  remarkable  health  of  the  orphans  of 
Queen's  Hospital,  The  human  skull  is  naturally  better 
protected  than  that  of  any  other  warm-blooded  animal, 
so  that  there  seems  little  need  of  adding  an  artificial 
covering ;  and,  as  Dr.  Adair  observes,  the  most  neg- 
lected children,  street  Arabs  and  young  gypsies,  are 
least  liable  to  diseases,  chiefly  because  they  are  not 
guarded  from  the  access  of  fresh  air  by  too  many  gar- 
ments (Adair's  "  Medical  Cautions,"  p.  389).  It  is  also 
well  known  that  baldness  is  the  effect  of  effeminate 
habits  as  often  as  of  dissipation ;  and  yet  there  are  par- 
ents who  think  it  highly  dangerous  to  let  a  boy  go  out 
bareheaded  even  in  May  or  September.  The  trouble  is, 
that  so  many  of  our  latter-day  health  codes  are  framed 
by  men  who  mistake  the  exigencies  of  their  own  de- 
crepitude for  the  normal  condition  of  mankind.  Thou- 
sands of  North  American  mothers  get  their  hygienic 
oracles  from  the  household  notes  of  some  orthodox 
weekly,  where  the  Rev.  Falstaff  Tartuffe  assures  them 
— from  personal  experience — that  raw  apples  are  indi- 
gestible, and  that  rheumatism  can  be  prevented  only  by 
night-caps  and  woolen  undershirts. 

Girls,  it  seems,  have  to  pass  through  a  millinery 
climacteric,  as  their  brothers  through  a  wild-oats  period ; 
but  even  during  that  interregnum  of  reason  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation  would  assert  its  supremacy  if  the 
health  laws  of  physiology  and  their  antagonism  to  cer- 
tain fashions  were  more  generally  understood.  Claude 
Bernard  speaks  of  a  French  philanthropist  who  pro- 
posed to  offer  a  prize  for  the  most  tasteful  female  dress, 
manufactured  from  the  cheapest  materials ;  and,  if  the 
votaries  of  the  Graces  would  consent  to  a  reform  in  the 
shape  and  stuff  of  their  garments,  we  could  well  afford 
to  indulge  them  in  chromatics  and  a  flounce  or  two,  for 


CLOTHING. 


163 


there  is  no  reason  to  afflict  them  with  Quaker-drab,  if 
more  cheerful  colors  are  as  cheap.  As  long  as  they 
avoid  excesses  in  the  quantity  and  form  of  their  drees, 
and  restrict  themselves  to  four  dimes'  worth  of  vanities 
per  month,  we  need  not  grudge  them  a  display  of  tlu-ir 
taste  in  the  selection  of  pretty  patterns ;  let  them  radi- 
ate in  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  and  all  the  gems  of 
the  "Chicago  Prize-Package  Company."  Veniunt  a 
veste  sagittdB — the  dress  problem  has  always  employed 
the  leisure  of  gossips  and  Doctors'  Commons,  especially 
in  cities,  and  more  especially  in  the  wealthy  and  indo- 
lent cities  of  the  Old  World.  There  is  a  legend  of  a 
New  England  virgin  fainting  at  the  mention  of  "un- 
dressed lumber,"  but  that  tradition  must  be  of  East 
origin.  The  dry-goods  worship  is  carried  nowhere  fur- 
ther than  where  children  are  treated  like  dolls  and 
women  like  children,  unfit  to  be  intrusted  with  any 
more  important  business.  The  "  organ  of  ornamenta- 
tiveness,"  or  fashion-mania,  may,  after  all,  not  be  an  in- 
nate instinct  of  the  female  mind.  Madame  de  Stae'l 
and  Mrs.  Lewes  at  least  deny  it,  and,  if  they  are  right, 
an  enlarged  sphere  of  activity  will  by-and-by  help. their 
sisters  to  outgrow  that  bias.  In  the  mean  while,  the 
best  palliative  is  a  liberal  education,  besides  a  zealous 
propaganda  of  the  two  chief  theses  of  the  dress  reform: 
wider  jackets  and  shorter  under-garments ;  no  trailing 
dresses,  keeping  the  feet  wet  and  impeding  locomotion ; 
no  stays,  corsets,  and  strait- jacket  bodices. 

Next  to  the  regulation  dress  of  the  Turner  hall,  the 
present  style  of  the  United  States  infantry  uniform  is 
about  the  most  sensible  that  could  be  devised  with  re- 
gard to  sanitary  advantages,  and  nearly  so  in  respect  to 
good  taste,  if  Thorwaldsen's  dictum  holds  good,  that  the 
most  becoming  garments  are  those  which  adapt  them- 


PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

selves  to  the  natural  outlines  of  the  human  form.  A 
jacket  should  be  loose,  with  wide  but  rather  short 
sleeves,  loose  trousers,  no  waiscoat  or  drawers  in  the 
summer  season ;  for  small  boys,  short  trousers  without 
pockets,  but  with  broad  leather  braids  along  the  seams. 
The  comparative  advantages  of  waistbands  or  braces 
have  been  frequently  controverted  ;  at  best  it  is  only  a 
question  of  choosing  the  lesser  evil.  A  tight  belt  is 
almost  as  injurious  as  a  corset,  while  non-elastic  sus- 
penders may  interfere  with  the  functions  of  the  respira- 
tory organs,  and  even  occasion  stooping.  For  boys  and 
slender-built  men,  with  well-developed  hips,  an  elastic 
waistband  is,  on  the  whole,  preferable ;  corpulent  persons 
can  not  dispense  with  braces,  for  the  plan  of  buttoning 
the  breeches  to  the  jacket  or  waistband  would  amount 
to  the  same,  by  making  the  shoulders  support  the 
weight  of  the  lower  garments.  Tight  breeches  have, 
fortunately,  gone  out  of  fashion ;  likewise  tight  kid- 
gloves,  which  were  once  de  rigueur  on  every  public 
promenade. 

But  we  all  sin  against  our  feet ;  not  one  white  man 
in  tea  thousand  wears  shoes  that  are  not  more  or  less 
of  a  hindrance  in  walking,  and  often  a  source  of 
wretched  discomfort.  In  the  United  States,  England, 
and  Central  Europe,  it  is  wholly  impossible  to  find  a 
ready-made  pair  of  shoes  to  fit  a  normal  human  foot ; 
they  are  all  too  tight  in  proportion  to  their  length, 
every  pair  of  them,  even  the  United  States  army  shoes 
and  the  English  "  fast- walking  brogans."  Heels  are 
nonsense  ;  there  is  no  excrescence  on  the  sole  of  a  well- 
formed  human  being.  A  man  can  walk  faster,  more 
easily,  and  more  gracefully,  with  level  shoes,  with  soles 
shaped  like  those  of  a  slipper  or  an  Indian  moccasin. 
An  easy  shoe  should  be  heelless ;  the  upper  leather  soft 


CLOTHING. 

and  pliable;  the  sole  of  a  No.  9  shoe  at  least  four 
inches  wide.  But  you  can  not  persuade  a  shoemaker 
to  commit  such  heresies  against  the  tenets  of  his  craft. 
Dio  Lewis  recommends  paper  patterns,  corresponding 
to  the  exact  shape  of  the  natural  sole,  but  it  is  all  in 
vain ;  a  compromise  between  reason  and  dogma  is  the 
best  you  can  attain  by  such  means.  The  only  practicable 
plan  is  to  get  one  pair  of  shoes  made  under  your  p«-r 
sonal  supervision,  and  then  stipulate  for  the  necessary 
number  of  precise  facsimiles.  The  disciple  of 
Crispin  shrinks  from  the  guilt  of  the  original  sin,  but 
connives  at  a  copy  ;  a  precedent  will  reconcile  his  con- 
science. 

For  children  there  is  a  shorter  expedient :  let  them 
go  barefoot,  at  least  in-doors  and  all  summer;  it  will 
make  them  hardier  and  healthier.  Abernethy,  Schrodt, 
Dr.  Adair,  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau,  and  Claude  Bernard. 
agree  on  this  point ;  Dr.  Cadogan  thinks  shoes  and 
stockings  wholly  useless,  and  John  G.  Whittier  seems 
to  share  his  opinion  that  a  barefoot  boy  is  the  happiest 
representative  of  the  human  species.  "I  can  see  no 
reason  why  my  pupil  should  always  have  a  piece  *of  ox- 
hide under  his  foot,"  says  the  author  of  "  fimile."  .  .  . 
"Let  him  run  barefoot  wherever  he  pleases.  .  .  .  l-'ar 
from  growling  about  it,  I  shall  imitate  his  example."  ' 

Refusing  to  buy  tight  shoes  might  bring  easy  ones 
into  fashion  ;  but  boys  are  better  off  without  them, 
especially  in  the  years  of  rapid  growth,  when  their 

*  "  Pourquoi  f aut-il  quo  mon  61ovc  soit  forc£  d'avoir  toujours  sous 
les  pieds  une  peau  dc  boeuf  ?  Quel  mal  y  aurait-il  quc  la  sicnne  propre 
put  au  bcsoin  lui  servir  dc  semelle?  II  est  clair  qu'cn  cette  partio  li 
dclicatcsse  de  la  pcau  nc  pcut  jamais  6trc  utile  a  ricn  ct  pcut  aouYent 
beaucoup  nuirc.  Quo  timile  coure  lea  matins  a  pieds  nufl,  en  tout*  sal- 
eon,  par  Ic  chambre,  par  1'escalier,  par  le  jardin ;  loin  dc  Ten  grondir  jc 
1'imitirai."— (Rousseau :  "  fimile,  ou  de  1'tiducation,"  p.  143.) 


166  PHYSICAL   EDUCATION. 

measure  changes  from  month  to  month,  for  too  wide 
shoes  are  as  uncomfortable  as  tight  ones.  Out-doors, 
children's  stockings  are  almost  sure  to  get  wet,  and 
keep  the  feet  clammy  and  cold ;  while  a  young  gypsy 
or  a  Scotchman,  inured  to  wind  and  weather,  treads 
with  his  bare  feet  the  swampiest  valleys  and  the  rough- 
est hill-roads  without  the  least  discomfort.  Mature 
produces  a  better  sole-leather  than  any  shoemaker ;  the 
tegument  of  a  raccoon's  foot  or  a  monkey's  hind-hand 
can  give  us  an  idea  of  the  marvels  of  her  workmanship. 
The  sole  of  a  plantigrade  animal  is  not  hard ;  on  the 
contrary,  quite  pliable  and  soft  to  the  touch,  but  withal 
tougher  than  any  caoutchouc,  impervious  alike  to  water, 
sand,  and  thorns.  A  camel,  too,  has  a  foot  of  that  sort 
— pads  that  resist  the  burning  gravel  of  the  desert  for 
years,  where  a  horse's  hoof  would  wear  out  in  a  few 
weeks ;  for  the  same  reason  that  a  "  sand-blast "  de- 
stroys tanned  sole-leather  and  horn,  but  hardly  affects 
the  elastic  skin  of  the  human  hand.  Millions  of  un- 
shod Hindoos,  negroes,  and  South  American  savages 
brave  the  jungles  of  the  tropical  virgin  woods ;  and  in 
Nicaragua  I  saw  two  Indian  mail-carriers  trot  barefoot 
over  the  lava-beds  of  Amilpas,  over  fields  of  obsidian 
and  scoria,  where  a  dandy  in  patent-leather  gaiters 
would  have  feared  to  tread.  Three  or  four  seasons  of 
barefoot  rambles  over  the  fields  and  hills  will  develop 
such  soles — natural  shoe-leather  that  improves  from 
year  to  year,  till  it  can  be  warranted  to  protect  the 
wearer  against  the  roughest  roads,  and,  as  the  experi- 
ence of  our  half -wild  frontiersmen  attests,  also  against 
colds  and  rheumatism.  A  mere  moccasin  secures  such 
hardy  feet  against  frost-bites ;  for  here,  too,  the  rule 
holds  good  that  those  who  keep  themselves  too  warm 
in  the  summer  season  deprive  themselves  of  the  ad- 


CLOTHING.  167 

vantage  to  be  derived  from  additional  clothing  in  cold 
weather  and  in  old  age. 

Hen*  Teufelsdrdckh  devoted  a  voluminous  work  to 
the  "Philosophy  of  Clothing,"  but  the  practical  part 
of  the  science  may  be  summed  up  in  a  few  words.  Our 
dress  ought  to  be  adapted  to  the  changes  of  the  seasons, 
and  should  be  in  quality  durable,  cleanly,  and,  above 
all,  easy ;  in  quantity,  the  least  amount  compatible  with 
decency  and  comfort. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

SLEEP. 

"  Children,  stinted  in  their  sleep,  are  never  wide-awake." — PESTALOZZI. 

THE  vital  processes  of  man,  like  those  of  all  his  fel- 
low-creatures, are  partly  controlled  by  automatic  ten- 
dencies. Some  functions  of  our  internal  economy  are 
too  important  to  be  trusted  to  the  caprices  of  human 
volition ;  breathing,  eating,  drinking,  and  even  love, 
are  only  semi- voluntary  actions;  and  during  a  period 
varying  from  one  fourth  to  two  fifths  of  each  solar  day 
the  conscious  activity  of  the  senses  undergoes  a  com- 
plete suspense :  the  cerebral  workshop  is  closed  for 
repairs,  and  the  abused  or  exhausted  body  commits  its 
organism  into  the  healing  hands  of  Nature.  Under 
favorable  conditions  eight  hours  of  undisturbed  sleep 
would  almost  suffice  to  counteract  the  physiological' 
mischief  of  the  sixteen  waking  hours.  During  sleep 
the  organ  of  consciousness  is  at  rest,  and  the  energies 
of  the  system  seem  to  be  concentrated  on  the  function 
of  nutrition  and  the  renewal  of  the  vital  energy  in 
general ;  sleep  promotes  digestion,  repairs  the  waste  of 
the  muscular  tissue,  favors  the  process  of  cutaneous 
excretion,  and  renews  the  vigor  of  the  mental  faculties. 

The  amount  of  sleep  required  by  man  is  generally 

proportionate  to  the  waste  of  vital  strength,  whether 

>  by  muscular  exertion,  mental  activity  (or  emotion),  or 

by  the  process  of  rapid  assimilation,  as  during  the  first 


SLEEP. 


LOT 


years  of  growth  and  during  the  recovery  from  an  ex- 
hausting disease.  The  weight  of  a  new-born  child 
increases  more  rapidly  than  that  of  a  eupeptic  adult, 
enjoying  a  liberal  diet  after  a  period  of  starvation,  and, 
though  an  infant  is  incapable  of  forming  abstract  ideas, 
we  need  not  doubt  that  the  variety  of  new  and  bewil- 
dering impressions  must  overtask  its  little  sensoriuni 
in  a  few  hours.  Nurslings  should  therefore  be  per- 
mitted to  sleep  to  their  full  satisfaction ;  weakly  ba- 
bies, especially,  need  sleep  more  than  food,  and  it  is 
the  safest  plan  never  to  disturb  a  child's  slumber  while 
the  regularity  of  his  breathing  indicates  the  healthful- 
ness  of  his  repose  ;  there  is  little  danger  of  his  "  over- 
sleeping" himself  in  a  moderately  warmed,  well-veii- 
tilated  room.  Nevermind  about  mealtimes:  hunger 
will  awaken  him  at  the  right  moment,  or  teach  him  to 
make  up  for  lost  time.  Three  or  four  nursings  in  the 
twenty-four  hours  are  enough;  Dr.  C.  E.  Page,  who 
has  made  the  problem  of  infant  diet  his  special  study, 
believes  that  fifty  per  cent  of  the  enormous  number  of 
children  dying  under  two  years  of  age  are  killed  by 
being  coaxed  to  guzzle  till  they  are  hopelessly  diseased 
with  fatty  degeneration.* 

The  healthf  ulness  of  village-children  is  partly  due 
to  the  tranquillity  of  their  slumber  in  the  comfortable 
nooks  of  a  quiet  homestead,  or  in  the  shade  of  a  leafy 
tree,  while  their  parents  are  at  work  in  a  way  rather 

*  "  The  only  wonder  is  that  any  infant  lives  sixty  days  from  birth. 
Fed  before  birth  but  three  times  a  day,  he  is  after  birth  subjected  to  ten 
or  twenty  meals  in  the  twenty-four  hours,  until  chronic  dyspepsia  or  mme 
acute  disease  interferes.  .  .  .  So  fur  from  admitting  a  po.-.-il.h-  «-rror  in 
advising  three  meals  only,  I  am  convinced  that,  for  a  h.md-f.-«I  babj 
especially,  two  would  often  be  better  than  three."— ("  Uow  to  fced  » 
Baby  to  make  it  healthy  and  happy,"  p.  66.) 
8 


170  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

incompatible  with  the  habit  of  fondling  the  baby  all 
night.  In  houses  where  there  is  plenty  of  room,  the 
nursery  and  the  infant's  dormitory  ought  to  be  two 
separate  apartments :  the  play-room  can  not  be  too 
sunny ;  for  the  bedroom  a  shady  and  sequestered  loca- 
tion is,  on  the  whole,  preferable.  Next  to  out-door 
exercise,  silence  and  a  subdued  light  are  the  best  hyp- 
notics. But  under  no  circumstances  should  insomnia 
be  overcome  by  cradling  or  narcotics.  Stupefaction 
is  not  slumber.  The  lethargy  induced  by  rocking  and 
cradling  is  akin  to  the  drowsy  torpor  of  a  seasick 
passenger,  and  the  opium-doctor  might  as  well  benumb 
his  patient  by  a  whack  on  the  head.  The  morbid 
sleeplessness  of  children  may  be  owing  to  several  causes 
which  can  be  generally  recognized  by  the  symptoms  of 
their  modus  operandi  ;  impatient  turning  from  side  to 
side,  as  if  in  a  vain  attempt  to  obtain  a  much-needed 
repose,  means  that  the  room  is  too  stuffy  or  too  warm ; 
long  wakefulness,  combined  with  squalling  -  fits  and 
petulant  movements,  indicates  acidity  in  the  stomach 
(overfeeding,  or  too  much  "soothing-sirup") — let  the 
little  kicker  exercise  his  muscle  on  the  floor ;  in  malig- 
nant cases,  skip  a  meal  or  two,  or  give  water  instead  of 
milk.  After  weathering  an  attack  of  croup,  children 
often  lie  motionless  on  their  backs  with  a  peculiar 
glassy  stare  of  their  wide-open  eyes.  Leave  them 
alone;  instinct  teaches  them  to  assuage  the  distress 
of  their  lungs  by  slow  and  deep  respirations ;  rest  and 
a  half-open  window  will  do  them  more  good  than 
medicine. 

Healthful  infants — i.  e.,  under  rational  management 
the  great  plurality — can  soon  be  taught  to  transact  their 
public  business  at  seasonable  hours,  or  at  least  to  ab- 
stain from  midnight  serenades.  If  mothers  would 


SLEEP. 


make  it  a  rule  to  do  all  tlieir  nursing  and  fondling  in 
the  day-time,  their  little  revivalists  would  soon  learn  to 
associate  darkness  with  the  idea  of  silence  and  slumber. 
Habit  will  do  wonders  in  such  things.  Captain  Barclay 
and  several  American  pedestrians  learned  to  take  their 
half-hour  naps  as  a  traveler  snatches  a  hasty  lunch,  and 
many  old  soldiers  develop  a  faculty  of  going  off  to 
sleep,  as  it  were,  at  the  word  of  command,  the  moment 
their  shoulders  touch  the  guard-house  bunk.  The  two 
drowsiest  years  of  my  life  I  passed  at  an  old  ^ 
boarding-school,  where  teachers  and  pupils  were  limiu-.l 
to  seven  hours  of  sleep,  after  nine  hours  of  study,  be- 
sides written  exercises  and  special  recitations,  and  wi. 
sixty  or  seventy  of  us  had  to  sleep  in  a  large  hall  ;  and 
I  do  not  believe  that  the  last  flickering  of  our  five-min- 
utes candle  was  ever  witnessed  by  a  pair  of  more  than 
half-open  eyes. 

But  that  same  faculty  of  sleeping  and  waking  at 
short  notice  may  be  utilized  for  the  purpose  of  taking 
little  naps  whenever  opportunity  offers  —  in  the  last 
half-hour  of  the  noontide  recess,  or  during  the  Bun- 
combe interacts  of  a  protracted  session.  The  inhabit- 
ants of  all  intertropical  countries  make  the  time  of 
repose  a  movable  festival,  and  during  the  dog-days  of 
our  torrid  summers  it  would  clearly  be  the  best  plan  to 
imitate  their  example.  "  Children  must  not  sleep  in 
the  day-time,"  says  a  by-law  of  our  time-dishonored 
Koran  of  domestic  superstitions  ;  and,  not  satisfied  with 
keeping  our  little  ones  at  school  during  the  drowsy 
afternoons  of  the  summer  solstice,  we  increase  their 
misery  by  stuffing  them  at  the  very  noon  of  the  hottest 
hours  with  a  mass  of  greasy  (i.  e.,  heat-producing  and 
soporific)  food.  An  hour  after  the  end  of  a  long,  sultry 
day  comes  the  cool  night-wind,  heaven's  own  blessing 


172  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

for  all  who  hunger  and  thirst  after  fresh  air ;  but  no, 
"  Night-air  is  injurious  "  ;  besides,  Mrs.  Grundy  objects 
to  promenades  after  dark,  so  the  children  are  driven  to 
their  suffocating,  un ventilated  bedrooms,  not  to  sleep 
but  to  swelter,  till  toward  midnight,  when  drowsiness 
subsides  into  a  sort  of  lethargy  which  yields  only  to 
broad  daylight,  three  or  four  hours  after  sunrise.  "  So 
much  the  better,"  says  the  fashionable  mother,  who  has 
passed  the  night  at  an  ice-cream  ridotto,  "  and  morning 
air  isn't  healthy,  either ;  most  dangerous  to  leave  the 
house  before  the  dew  is  off  the  grass." 

Only  the  curse  of  pessimism,  our  wof  ul  distrust  of 
our  natural  instincts,  can  explain  such  absurdities.  The 
parched  palate's  petition  for  a  cooling  liquid  is  not 
plainer  than  the  brain's  craving  for  rest  and  slumber 
when  a  high  temperature  adds  its  somniferous  tendency 
to  the  drowsy  influence  of  a  full  meal.  On  warm  sum- 
mer days  all  Nature  indulges  in  a  noontide  nap ;  I  have 
walked  through  tropical  forests  that  were  as  silent  un- 
der the  rays  of  a  vertical  sun  as  a  Norwegian  pine- 
grove  in  the  dead  of  a  polar  night ;  nor  would  it  be 
easy  to  name  a  single  animal  that  does  not  appear  sleepy 
after  meals.  At  noon  leaf-trees  throw  their  densest 
shade ;  even  butterflies  seek  the  penetralia  of  the  foli- 
age, and  lizards  cling  lazily  to  the  dark  side  of  the 
lower  branches ;  every  school-teacher  knows  that  chil- 
dren feel  the  drowsy  spell  of  the  afternoon  sun ;  why 
should  they  alone  be  hurt  by  yielding  to  its  prompt- 
ings? Either  postpone  the  principal  meal  to  the 
end  of  the  day,  or  increase  the 'noontide  recess  to 
at  least  three  hours,  so  as  to  leave  time  for  a  digestive 
siesta. 

In  midsummer  all  mammals  (squirrels,  perhaps,  ex- 
cepted)  become  semi-nocturnal :  deer  and  llamas  pasture 


SLEEP. 

the  moonlit  mountain-meadows ;  bears,  badgers,  and  the 
larger  species  of  monkeys  are  wide-awake;  buffaloes 
wander  en  masse  to  the  next  drinking-place ;  and  the 
step-children  of  Nature^  the  starved  lazzaroni  of  South- 
ern Europe,  forget  their  misery  if  they  can  procure  a 
fiddle  or  a  guitar.  The  moonlit  streets  of  the  Mexican 
cities  swarm  with  merry  children,  but  north  of  the  Rio 
Grande  not  a  decent  lad  is  seen  out-doors  after  sun- 
down ;  Luna  has  to  seek  her  Eudymions  in  the  tropics, 
though  our  summer  nights  are  often  as  glorious  as  the 
noches  serenas  of  Southern  Andalusia.  And  what 
would  our  hardy  forefathers  have  said  about  our  dread 
of  the  morning  dew  \  How  many  thousands  of  hunters 
and  soldiers  have  slept  in  the  open  fields,  and  how  many 
times  did  we  wade  through  the  dew-drenched  brambles 
of  the  Ardennes,  my  little  brother  and  I,  to  see  the  sun 
rise,  and  breathe  the  mountain  wind,  at  the  only  hour 
when  the  air  is  both  fragrant  and  cool,  inspiring  thoughts 
which  music  can  only  awaken  for  a  fleeting  moment  !— 
if  such  hours  are  mortiferous,  there  can  not  be  a  more 
agreeable  way  of  ending  what  our  latter-day  epicures 
are  pleased  to  call  life. 

What  harm  can  there  be  in  dividing  our  daily  por- 
tion of  sleep  ?  Birds  and  beasts  do  it,  the  founders  of 
the  most  ascetic  orders  of  Spanish  monks  allowed  it, 
and  our  summer  months  are  certainly  as  warm  as  those 
of  Southern  Europe.  People  who  are  so  anxious  to 
improve  the  shining  hours  for  business  purposes  had 
much  better  curtail  the  number  of  their  meals ;  take  a 
vote  among  the  juvenile  operatives  of  a  cotton-factory, 
and  ten  to  one  that  a  large  majority  would  gladly  post- 
pone, or  even  renounce,  their  dinner  for  the  privilege 
of  sleeping  an  hour  or  two  between  1  and  3  p.  M.  A 
Belo-ian  silk-manufacturer,  who  had  spent  his  own  boy- 


174:  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

hood  at  the  loom,  told  me  that  he  could  never  find  it  in 
his  heart  to  discharge  a  factory-child  for  dozing  over  its 
work. 

Necessity  may  compel  individuals  to  compromise 
such  matters.  If  I  had  to  work  or  teach  all  day,  I 
would  not  eat  a  crumb  between  breakfast  and  supper, 
and  pass  the  dinner-hour  under  a  shade-tree ;  but  par- 
ents who  can  afford  to  educate  their  children  at  home 
should  give  them  either  an  all-summer  vacation  or  a 
half-afternoon  recess — let  them  rest  from  twelve  till 
three,  or  sleep  if  they  prefer ;  in  the  evening,  do  not 
send  them  to  bed  till  they  are  really  tired,  and  till  the 
night-wind  has  revitalized  the  air  of  their  bedrooms ; 
but  make  them  rise  with  the  sun — if  they  are  drowsy 
they  will  go  to  bed  earlier  the  next  evening.  There  is 
no  danger  of  a  child's — especially  a  boy's — oversleeping 
himself,  unless  the  hardships  of  his  waking  hours  are  so 
intolerable  that  oblivion  becomes  a  blessing ;  but  it  can 
do  no  harm  to  make  the  health-giving  morning  hour  as 
attractive  as  possible :  provide  some  out-door  amuse- 
ment, a  prize  foot-race,  a  butterfly-hunt,  or  gathering 
windfalls  in  the  apple-orchard ;  if  the  desire  for  longer 
sleep  can  outweigh  such  inducements,  there  must  be 
something  wrong — plethorific  diet,  probably,  or  over- 
study.  The  requisite  amount  of  sleep  depends  on  tem- 
perament and  occupation  as  well  as  on  age ;  with  chil- 
dren under  ten,  however,  too  much  indulgence  would 
be  an  error  on  the  safer  side :  let  them  choose  their 
allowance  between  eight  and  ten  hours ;  in  after-years, 
seven  hours  should  be  the  minimum,  nine  the  maximum 
for  healthy  children ;  sickly  ones  ought  to  have  carte 
Manche,  both  as  to  quantum  and  time  of  repose ;  con- 
sumptives, especially,  need  all  the  rest  they  can  get. 
Profound  sleep  in  a  cool,  quiet  retreat  is  Nature's  own 


SLEEP. 


175 


specific  for  all  wasting  diseases,  a  panacea  without  price 
and  money. 

Nothing  can  be  more  injudicious  than  to  stint  chil- 
dren in  their  sleep  with  a  view  of  gaining  a  few  hours 
for  study.  "  That  plan,"  says  Pestalozzi,  "  defeats  its 
own  purpose,  for  such  children  are  never  wide-awake ; 
you  can  keep  them  out  of  bed,  but  you  can  not  prevent 
them  from  dozing  with  their  eyes  open.  A  wide-awake 
boy  will  learn  more  in  one  hour  than  a  day-dreamer  in 
ten." 

Habitual  deficiency  of  sleep  will  undermine 
strongest  constitution ;  headache,  throbbing,  and  fever- 
ish heat  are  the  precursors  of  graver  evils,  unless  a  tem- 
porary loss  of  mental  power  compels  an  armistice  with 
outraged  Nature.  King  Alfred,  Spinoza,  Kepler,  Vic- 
tor Alfieri,  Madame  de  Stae'l,  and  Frederick  Schiller 
killed  themselves  with  restless  study;  Beethoven  and 
Charles  Dickens,  too,  probably  prepaid  the  debt  of 
Nature  by  their  habit  of  fighting  fatigue  with  strong 
coffee.  Sleeplessness  may  lead  to  chronic  hypochoml : 
and  even  to  idiocy;  without  their  long  vigils,  the 
monks  of  the  Thebais  and  the  fathers  of  the  Alexan- 
drian Church  could  hardly  have  written  such  stupend< 
nonsense.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  compulsory  wakeful- 
ness  combined  with  mental  activity  often  induces  ft  state 
of  morbid  insomnia,  an  absolute  inability  to  obtain  the 
sleep  which  it  was  at  first  so  difficult  to  resist.  In  such 
cases,  the  only  remedv  is  fresh  air  and  a  complete 
change  of  occupation.  (During  sleep  the  brain  is  in  a 
comparatively  bloodless  condition;*  a  hot  Lead  and 

*  Dr.  Caldwell  records  a  case  of  a  woman  at  Montpcllicr,  who 
lost  part  of  her  skull  (from  disease),  the  brain  and  part  of  ita  m 
lying  bare.    When  she  was  in  a  deep  and  sound  sleep,  tl 
the  skull  almost  motionless ;  when  she  was  dreaming,  it  bectt*  « 


176  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

throbbing  temples  are  unfavorable  to  repose,  and  it  lias 
been  suggested  that  insomnia  might  be  counteracted  by 
a  hot  foot-bath,  chafing  the  arms  and  legs;  or  any  simi- 
lar operation  that  would  divert  the  blood  from  the  head 
toward  the  extremities,  and  thus  tend  to  diminish  the 
activity  of  the  cerebral  circulation.  Listening  to  distant 
music  or  the  ripple  of  a  river-current  has  also  a  wonder- 
ful hypnotic  effect,  the  repetition  of  monotonous  sounds, 
or,  indeed,  of  any  sensorial  impression,  seems  more  fa- 
vorable to  repose  than  their  entire  absenceA  The  phi- 
losopher Kant  assures  us  that  he  could  obtain'sleep  in  a 
paroxysm  of  gout  by  resolutely  fixing  his  attention  on 
some  abstruse  ethical  or  mathematical  problem,  but  re- 
marks that  the  success  of  that  method  depends  upon 
the  laboriousness  of  the  mental  process ;  the  mind,  as  it 
were,  takes  refuge  in  sleep  as  the  alternative  of  drudg- 
ing at  a  wearisome  task.  Robert  Burton,  too,  gives  a 
number  of  similar  recipes,  besides  a  list  of  wondrous 
medicinal  compounds  to  be  swallowed  or  inhaled  ad 
horam  somni,  but  in  ordinary  cases  it  is  better  to  try 
the  effects  of  out-door  exercise,  before  resorting  to  dor- 
mouse-fat,* theological  text- books,  or  other  desperate 
remedies^ 

Being  naturally  a  sound  and  long  sleeper  has  been 
ranked  among  the  surest  prognostics  of  a  long  life,  and 
sleep  after  a  wasting  disease  as  the  most  certain  symp- 
tom of  recovery.  Most  brain-workers  are  subject  to 
occasional  fits  of  insomnia,  but  the  faculty  of  sustaining 

and,  when  she  awoke,  it  became  suffused  with  blood  and  seemed  inclined 
to  rise  through  the  cranial  aperture." — ("  Psychological  Journal,"  vol.  v, 
p.  74.) 

*  "  Anoint  the  soles  of  the  feet  with  the  fat  of  a  dormouse,  the  teetii>*s\ 
with  ear-wax  of  a  dog,  swine's  gall,  oil  of  nunaphar,  henbane,"  etc. —       j 
Jj"  Correctors  of  Accidents  to  procure  Sleep,"  "  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"      / 
p.  414.) 


6,    U 


SLEEP. 


177 


health  and  vigor  upon  a  very  small  allowance  of  sleep 
is  generally  a  concomitant  of  mental  inferiority,  or  at 
least  inactivity.  The  most  intelligent  animals,  dogs 
and  monkeys,  sleep  the  longest ;  stupid  brutes  merely 
stretch  their  legs,  their  inert  brain  requires  no  rest ;  a 
c«  >\v  never  sleeps,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  Mira- 
bcau,  Goethe,  and  James  Quin  often  slumbered  for 
twelve  or  fourteen  hours  successively,  while  Leopold  I, 
of  Austria,  and  Charles  IY,  of  Spain,  the  heartless  and 
brainless  bigots,  could  content  themselves  with  five 
hours  of  sleep  out  of  the  twenty-four,  and  their  proto- 
type, the  Emperor  Justinian,  often  even  with  one. — 
(Gibbon's  "  Rome,"  vol.  vii,  p.  406.) 

Ileinrich  Heine  wonders  why  Jehovah  did  not  square 
hi.s  account  with  our  wicked  forefathers  by  punishing 
them  in  their  sleep,  instead  of  compromising  their  inno- 
cent progeny.'  Dietetic  sins  often  avenge  themselves 
in  that  way;  blutwurst,  sauerkraut,  or  short-cakes  with 
pork-fritters,  generally  result  in  apocalyptic  visions,  and 
an  eel-pie  for  supper  is  a  reliable  receipt  for  a  first-class 
nightmare.  Vivid  dreams,  per  se,  however,  are  by  no 
means  a  morbid  symptom  ;  on  the  contrary  the  scenes 
of  the  slumber-drama  are  most  lively  and  life-like  in  tin; 
happiest  years  of  childhood;  and  I  remember  a  time 
when  I  longed  for  the  bed-hour,  in  anticipation  of  a 
pleasant  dream-land  excursion.  Children  are  apt  t« 
late  their  trance  adventures,  and  I  would  encourage  the 
habit ;  dreams,  as  the  elder  Pliny  already  observes,  nny 
often  afford  a  suggestive  insight  into  the  ethical  condi- 
tion of  the  mind  ;  also  into  the  condition  of  the  stomach. 
Melodramatic  incidents  indicate  the  presence  of  irritat- 
ing ingesta,  and  the  least  attempt  at  clnirvoyaiioc  calls 
for  out-door  exercise  and  an  aperient  diet,  A  South- 
German  feather-bed  is  a  Trophonian  ca  !  ithVulty 


178  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

of  turning  from  side  to  side  crowds  the  brain  with 
alarming  phantasms,  and  the  excessive  warmth  of  the 
thing  itself  is  apt  to  affect  the  imagination.  The  best 
bed  is,  indeed,  a  hard,  broad  mattress,  or  a  well-stuffed 
straw  tick,  and,  for  reasons  I  have  stated  in  the  chapter 
on  "  In-door  Life,"  a  woolen  blanket  over  a  linen  bed- 
sheet  is  preferable  to  a  quilt.  Those  who  find  it  un- 
comfortable to  sleep  in  an  absolutely  horizontal  position 
should  slightly  raise  the  head-end  of  the  bedstead  rather 
than  use  a  thick  bolster.  A  thick  pillow  bends  the  head 
upon  the  breast,  or  keeps  the  neck  in  a  position  that  ag- 
gravates the  distress  of  respiratory  difficulties.  "Woven- 
wire  mattresses  recommend  themselves  by  their  cleanli- 
ness and  durability ;  their  elastic  qualities  alone  would 
hardly  justify  a  great  expense,  though  luxury  has  even 
devised  an  "  hydrostatic  bed,"  a  trough  of  water  with  a 
tegument  of  caoutchouc.  History  records  the  name  of 
the  Sybarite  who  "  cried  aloud  because  a  leaflet  of  his 
flower-mattress  got  crumpled  "  ;  and  Chevalier  Luckner, 
the  Russian  Lucullus,  built  himself  an  air-pillow  bed  on 
noiseless  wheels,  that  could  be  turned  by  a  hand-lever, 
in  order  to  move  the  sleeping-car  from  or  toward  the 
stove,  the  aphelion  and  perihelion  being  determined  by 
the  state  of  the  out-door  atmosphere.  Such  chevaliers 
deserve  the  penance  of  Ezekiel  (iv,  3-6),  who  had  to  lie 
three  hundred  and  ninety  days  on  his  left  side  for  the 
iniquity  of  the  house  of  Israel,  and  forty  days  extra  for 
the  iniquity  of  the  house  of  Judah.  A  weary  head 
needs  no  air-cushions,  with  noiseless  wheel-attachments ; 
brakesmen  take  their  intermittent  naps  on  the  hard  ca- 
boose-bunk of  a  rumbling  freight-train  ;  and  the  log  of 
the  Royal  Sovereign  records  that,  during  the  heat  of 
the  battle  of  the  Nile,  some  of  the  over-fatigued  boys 
fell  asleep  upon  the  deck. 


SLEEP. 


179 


The  habit  of  going  to  sleep  at  fixed  hours  can  over- 
come the  tortures  of  neuralgia,  and  some  practical  stoics 
have  manifested  a  not  less  astonishing  command  over 
their  mental  emotions ;  Napoleon  I  slept  soundly  on 
the  eve  of  the  battle  he  knew  to  be  his  last  chance,  like 
Mohammed  II  before  his  last  neck-or-nothing  assault 
upon  the  ramparts  of  Constantinople.  Army-life  can 
acquaint  a  man  with  strange  beds,  as  well  as  bedfellows. 
Skobeleff  s  troopers  had  to  sleep  in  dug-outs  on  the 
woodless  ridges  of  the  Balkan ;  and,  during  Ney's  re- 
treat from  Moscow,  the  commander  himself  had  once 
to  pass  a  night  in  a  root-house,  where  a  few  rotten 
boards  and  a  bundle  of  straw  formed  his  only  protec- 
tion against  a  raging  snow-storm. 

But  "  roughing  it "  teaches  some  useful  lessons,  and 
soldiers  and  hunters  often  learn  by  experience  that  sleep 
under  such  circumstances  depends  upon  the  possibility 
of  getting  the  feet  warm ;  rain  in  the  face,  or  even  a 
wet  overcoat,  is  less  anti-hypnotic  than  chilled  toes.  In 
a  trapper's  bivouac  the  sleepers  generally  lie  in  a  circle 
around  the  camp-fire,  with  their  feet  toward  the  glow- 
ing embers,  and  the  Swiss  mountaineers  use  foot-sacks 
— long  socks  of  a  felt-like  stuff,  and  wide  enough  to 
leave  room  for  a  lot  of  dry  leaves,  besides  two  or  three 
pail's  of  stockings.  Both  methods  are  practical  applica- 
tions of  Dr.  CaldwelPs  theory  that  a  decrease  of  the 
cerebral  blood-circulation  has  a  somniferous  influence ; 
in  other  words,  that  sleep  can  be  promoted  by  warming 
the  extremities,  of  the  body,  and  thus  diverting  the 
blood  from  the  head. 

In-doors,  summer  often  reverses  the  problem;  in 
the  dog-days,  when  the  amount  of  bedclothing  has  to 
be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  the  main  point  is  to  cool  the 
head  by  lowering  the  temperature  of  the  bedroom. 


180  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

Open  windows,  a  hard,  smooth  mattress,  linen  bed- 
sheets,  and  a  light  supper  will  generally  answer  the 
purpose ;  in  the  lower  latitudes,  George  Combe  recom- 
mends glazed  brick  floors,  frequent  sprinklings,  and  in 
very  hot  nights  a  tub  with  ice.  And  why  not  ? '  The 
Turkish  residents  of  Damascus  pass  the  summer  nights 
in  the  yeyirman  or  fountain-hall  of  their  cool  houses, 
and  the  garrison  soldiers  of  San  Juan  d'Ulloa  deem  it  a 
special  privilege  to  sleep  on  the  floating  wharf,  exposed 
to  the  spray  and  the  fitful  swell  of  the  Gulf-tide. 

In  the  West  Indies  and  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  mos- 
quito-bars are  a  sad  necessity,  but  all  sensible  people 
should  be  glad  that  the  French  canopy-beds  are  going 
out  of  fashion.  The  French  are  right,  though,  in  mak- 
ing children  over  ten  years  sleep  alone  ;  it  is  one  of  the 
rare  instances  of  an  etiquette  law  being  supported  by  a 
valid  reason.  To  those  who  can  afford  it,  Dr.  Franklin 
recommends  even  two  beds  per  individual,  and  in 
sweltering  summer  nights  it  is  certainly  a  blessing  to 
be  able  to  leave  a  hot  bed  for  a  cool  one ;  in  the  large 
family  guest-chambers  of  a  German  hotel,  sleepless 
travelers  can  thus  change  the  beds  like  relay-horses. 
The  builders  of  the  old  English  country-seats  seem  to 
have  made  it  a  rule  to  have  the  houses  face  due  south, 
with  few  or  no  windows  on  the  north  side,  and  in  such 
buildings  the  east  windows  would  make  the  best  bed- 
room fronts,  both  on  account  of  the  evening  shade  and 
the  monitory  morning  sun.  In  our  Northwestern  Ter- 
ritories, where  the  thermometer  ranges  from  90°  above 
zero  to  45°  below,  it  would  be  no  bad  plan  to  vary  the 
location  of  the  bed-chamber  with  the  change  of  the  sea- 
son, but,  as  a  general  rule,  the  dormitory  should  be  the 
coolest  room  in  the  house — i.  e.,  the  nearest  to  the  north 
side,  and  the  farthest  from  the  kitchen. 


CHAPTER  VIL 
RECREATION. 

"Mirth  is  a  rcmedj-."-TnoiU8  UOBBZS. 

HAPPINESS  is  the  normal  condition  of  every  living 
creature,  for  in  a  state  of  nature  every  normal  function 
is  connected  with  a  pleasurable  sensation.     "  To  enjoy 
is  to  obey  " ;  if  human  life  were  what  it  could  be  and 
what  its  Author  intended  it  to  be,  the  path  of  duty 
would  be  a  flowery  path,  the  reward  of  virtue  would 
not  be  a  crown  of  thorns;   man,  like  all  his  fellow- 
creatures,  would  attain  to  his  highest  well-being  by 
simply  following  the  promptings  of  his  instincts.     Will  I 
animals  have  not  lost  their  earthly  paradise ;  he  who 
has  observed  them  in  the  freedom  of  their  forest  homos 
can  not  doubt  that  to  them  existence  is  a  blessing,  and 
death  merely  the  later  or  earlier  evening  of  a  hapjtv 
day.     Nor  would  our  missionaries  find  it  easy  to  ]>rr- 
suade  an  able-bodied  savage  that  earth  is  a  vale  of  tears, 
till  fire-water  and  fire-arms  demonstrate  the  superiority 
of  revelation  over  the  light  of  nature.     The  childn-n  of 
the  wilderness  need  no  holidays ;  to  them  life  itself  is 
a  festival  and  earth  a  play-ground  for  manifold  games, 
not  the  less  entertaining  for  being  sometimes  sj>i 
with  danger  or  prompted  by  hunger  and  thirst. 

But  in  process  of  time  the  daily  life  of  a  combatant 
in  the  harder  and  harder  struggle  for  existence  became 
so  joyless  and  wearisome  that  the  clamors  of  an  unsat- 


182  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

isfied  instinct  suggested  the  institution  of  periodical 
festivals :  pleasure-days  intended  to  offset  the  tedium 
of  monotonous  toil,  as  gymnastic  exercises  tend  to  coun- 
teract the  influence  of  sedentary  occupations.  The  As- 
syrians and  Greeks  had  tri-monthly  holidays,  besides 
annual  revels,  and  great  national  festivals  at  longer 
intervals.  In  ancient  Etruria  every  new  month  was 
ushered  in  by  a  day  of  merry-making  in  honor  of  a 
tutelary  deity  ;  the  patricians  and  plebeians  of  repub- 
lican Rome  had  their  field-days ;  the  festivals  of  the 
seasons  united  the  pleasure-seekers  of  all  classes,  and 
even  the  slaves  had  their  Saturnalia  weeks  when  some 
of  their  privileges  were  only  limited  by  their  capacity 
of  enjoyment.  In  the  first  centuries  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  when  the  growth  of  the  cities  and  the  scarcity 
of  game  began  to  circumscribe  the  private  pastimes  of 
the  poorer  classes,  the  rulers  themselves  provided  the 
means  of  public  amusements ;  at  the  death  of  Septimus 
Severus  (A.  D.  211),  the  capital  alone  had  six  free  amphi- 
theatres and  twelve  or  fourteen  large  public  baths,  where 
the  poorest  were  admitted  gratis,  and  none  but  the  poor- 
est could  complain  about  the  half-cent  entrance-fee  to 
the  luxurious  ihermm.  The  circenses,  or  public  games, 
were  by  no  means  confined  to  the  gladiatorial  combats 
that  have  exercised  the  eloquen.ce  of  our  Christian  mor- 
alists ;  dramatic  entertainments,  trials  of  strength,  and 
the  exhibition  of  outlandish  curiosities,  seem  to  have 
been  as  popular  as  the  grandest  prize-fights,  unless  the 
combatants  were  international  champions.  And  it 
would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  only  the 
wealthy  capital  could  afford  to  amuse  its  citizens  at  the 
public  expense ;  from  Gaul  to  Syria  every  town  had  a 
circus  or  two,  every  larger  village  an  arena,  a  free  bath, 
and  a  public  gymnasium.  The  Colosseum  of  Yespasian 


RECREATION. 


LSI 


seated  eighty  thousand  spectators,  but  was  rivaled  by 
the  amphitheatres  of  Narbonne,  Syracuse,  Antioch, 
Berytus,  and  Thessalonica.*  Children,  married  women' 
old  men,  and  many  trades-unions  had  their  yearly  car- 
nivals, and,  during  the  celebration  of  the  Olympian 
and  Capitoline  games  and  various  local  festivals,  i 
strangers  enjoyed  the  freedom  of  the  larger  towns. 

And  now  ?— Professor  Wirgmann,  in  his  "  Annalen 
des  Eussischen  Eeiches,"  estimates  that  since  the  acces- 
sion of  Nicholas  I  the  modern  Caesars  have  expended 
an  average  annual  sum  of  seventeen  million  dollars  for 
the  torture  of  their  subjects ;  how  many  cents  have  they 
ever  spent  for  national  pastimes  ?  How  many  specta- 
tors (since  the  abolition  of  the  "Tyburn-days")  have 
ever  been  entertained  at  the  expense  of  the  wealthy 
British  Empire  ?  What  has  our  Great  Republic  done 
in  the  matter  of  circenses,  except  to  pass  an  occasional 
sabbath  law  for  the  suppression  of  public  amusements 
on  the  only  day  in  which  a  large  plurality  of  our  work- 
ing-men find  their  only  leisure  for  recreation?  The 
spoils  of  a  Roman  consul  would  dwindle  before  the 
rents  of  our  American,  German,  and  French  financiers : 
what  have  our  commercial  triumphators  ever  achieved 
for  the  entertainment  of  their  poor  fellow-citiz* 
Cooper  Institute  lectures,  street  revivals,  and  prize  dis- 
tributions at  the  examination  of  a  sabbath-school  for 
adults?  "At  the  proposition  of  such-like  pastime," 
says  Ludwig  Boerne,  "  a  resurrected  citizen  of  ancient 
Rome  would  feel  like  a  filibuster  at  an  invitation  to 
dive  for  copper  coins  in  a  duck-pond,  after  having 
chased  King  Philip's  silver  fleet  on  the  Spanish  Main." 

Not  poverty  makes  our  daily  ways  so  trite  and  joy- 
less, for  the  best  recreations  are  still  as  free  as  the  air 

*  Tacitus,  "  Annalen,"  xii-xiv. 


184:  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

and  the  sea ;  nor  want  of  leisure,  for  we  manage  to  find 
plenty  of  time  for  humdrum  ceremonies.  The  old 
Egyptians  turned  their  funerals  into  holidays — we  cele- 
brate our  holidays  like  funerals ;  all  the  employments 
of  our  weekly  day  of  rest  are  sicklied  over  with  a  cast 
of  superstitious  fear ;  and,  indeed,  no  other  anachronism 
of  our  strangely  complex  civilization  proclaims  more 
loudly  the  necessity  of  its  divorce  from  the  influence  of 
an  anti-natural  religion.  When  that  religion  reigned 
supreme,  its  exponents  openly  and  violently  waged  war 
upon  all  earthly  joys ;  sublunary  life,  according  to  their 
doctrine,  was  a  state  of  probation  for  testing  a  man's 
power  of  self-denial;  earth  was  the  devil's  own,  and 
delight  in  its  pleasures  an  insult  to  the  jealous  ruler  of 
a  higher  sphere.  They  believed  that  God  delights  in 
the  self-abasement  and  mortification  of  his  creatures, 
and  hoped  to  gain  his  favor  by  afflicting  themselves  in 
every  possible  way — by  voluntary  seclusion,  fasts,  vigils, 
the  wearing  of  dingy  garments,  and  abstinence  from 
every  physical  pleasure.  Failing  to  enamor  mankind 
with  their  doleful  heaven,  they  revenged  themselves  by 
depriving  them  of  their  earthly  joys.  In  hopes  of 
making  the  hereafter  more  attractive,  they  made  life  as 
repulsive  as  possible ;  kill-joys  and  persecutors  were  the 
active  heroes  of  those  times ;  ascetics  and  self -tormentors 
their  passive  exemplars.  Virtue  and  joylessness  became 
synonyms ;  men  aspiring  to  superior  merit  exchanged 
the  glories  of  the  sunny  earth  for  the  misery  of  a  gloomy 
convent;  a  "Man  of  Sorrows"  became  a  type  of  moral 
perfection,  an  instrument  of  torture,  the  trade-mark  of 
the  new  religion.  JCosmos — i.  e.,  beauty  and  harmony 
— was  the  oldest  Grecian  term  for  God's  wonderful 
world ;  a  "  vale  of  tears  "  the  favorite  Christian  epithet. 
A  symposium  of  festive  heroes  was  exchanged  for  a  con- 


RECREATIOX. 

venticle  of  winning  penitents,  Olympus  for  a  chani.-l- 
liouse,  the  festival  of  the  seasons  for  the  ecc-K-.-ia-ti.- 
sabbath:  there,  a  merry  multitude,  joining  in  dancca 
and  heroic  games,  inspired  by  the  rapture  of  emulation, 
the  joy  of  exuberant  health  and  the  beauty  of  earth  till 
their  happiness  overflowed  in  anthems  of  praise  to  the 
bounteous  gods;  here,  a  cowed  and  wretched  assem- 
blage, listening  with  groans  to  the  denunciations  of  a 
Nature-hating  fanatic.  And  that  hideous  superstition 
founds  its  claim  to  our  gratitude  on  its  merit  of  having 
suppressed  a  few  profligate  pastimes — in  aiming  its 
death-blows  at  all  earthly  joys  whatever;  as  if  the 
crushing  of  a  few  poison-plants  could  atone  for  the  at- 
tempt to  turn  a  fertile  continent  into  a  sand-waste! 
The  attempt,  I  say,  for  I  do  not  believe  that  either  the 
axe  or  the  cross  will  for  ever  mar  the  beauty  of  our 
Mother  Earth ;  the  devastated  woodlands  of  the  East 
will  ultimately  be  reclaimed,  and  here  and  then-  the 
moral  desert  of  asceticism  has  already  begun  to  bloom 
with  flowers  from  the  revived  seeds  of  Grecian  civili- 
zation. 

Monachism,  at  least,  is  fast  disappearing;  in  thin 
a<>-e  of  railroads  and  steam-engines  we  have  no  time  for 

O  " 

positive  self-torture  d  la  Simon  Stylites.  But  our  com- 
mercial Pecksniffs  have  found  it  a  time-  and  mot 
saving  plan  to  stick  to  the  negative  part  of  tlu-  anti- 
pleasure  dogma,  and  hope  to  atone  for  the  dreary 
materialism  of  our  daily  factory-life  by  the  still  drearirr 
asceticism  of  a  Puritan  sabbath :  six  days  of  misery  in 
the  name  of  Mammon,  balanced  by  one  day  of  sixfold 
misery  in  the  name  of  Christ.  "Worldly  pleasures" 
are  still  under  the  ban  of  our  spiritual  purists;  daily 
drudgery  and  daily  self-denial  are  stilf  considi-n-d  the 
proper  sphere  of  a  law-abiding  citizen,  and  special  afflic- 


186  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

tions  a  special  sign  of  divine  favor.  Life  has  become 
a  socage-duty ;  we  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  alleviate 
the  distress  of  our  poor  till  it  reaches  a  degree  that 
threatens  to  end  it.  We  have  countless  benevolent  in- 
stitutions for  the  prevention  of  outright  death,  not  one 
benevolent  enough  to  make  life  worth  living.  Infanti- 
cide is  now  far  more  rigorously  punished  than  in  old 
times ;  we  enforce  every  child's  right  to  live  and  be- 
come a  humble,  tithe-paying  Christian,  but  as  for  its 
claim  to  live  happy  we  refer  it  to  the  sweet  by-and-by. 
We  shudder  at  the  barbarity  of  the  Caesars,  who  per- 
mitted the  combat  of  men  with  wild  beasts,  to  cater  to 
the  amusement  of  the  Roman  populace  ;  but  we  con- 
template with  great  equanimity  the  misery  of  millions 
of  our  fellow-citizens,  wearing  away  their  lives  in  work- 
shops and  factories ;  millions  of  children  of  our  own 
nation  and  country,  who  have  no  recreation  but  sleep, 
no  hope  but  oblivion,  to  whom  the  morning  sun  brings 
the  summons  of  a  task-master  and  the  summer  season 
nothing  but  lengthened  hours  of  weary  toil ;  nay,  we 
make  it  the  boast  of  our  pious  civilization  to  deprive 
them  of  their  sole  day  of  leisure,  to  interdict  their  harm- 
less sports,  lest  the  noise,  or  even  the  rumor  of  their 
merriment,  might  disturb  the  solemnity  of  an  assem- 
blage of  whining  bigots.  Hence  the  recklessness,  the 
Nihilism,  and  the  weary  pessimism  of  our  times,  the 
melancholy  that  everywhere  underlies  the  glittering 
varnish  of  our  social  life.  Hence  also  that  vague  yearn- 
ing after  a  happy  hereafter,  which  the  murderers  of  the 
happy  past  have  made  the  principal  source  of  their 
revenues. 

With  few  exceptions  the  children  of  Christendom 
are  stricken  wittt  a  disease  which  mirth  alone  can  cure. 
In  North  America  and  North  Britain,  especially,  it  is. 


RECREATION. 


187 


pitiful  to  witness  the  slow  withering  of  so  many  light- 
loving  creatures  in  the  hopeless  night  of  poverty  and 
Sabbatarianism ;  more  pitiful  to  see  the  reviving  of  tl 
spirits  at  every  deceptive  sign  of  dawn,  the  expedients 
of  poor,  compromising  Nature,  her  make-shifte  with 
half -recreations  and  half -sufficient  rest,  in  the  lingering 
hope  of  a  better  future — to  come  only  with  the  repose 
from  which  no  factory-bell  can  awaken  a  sleeper,  when 
after  long  years  of  waning  life,  waning  at  last  to  a  state 
of  callous  vegetation,  Nature  is  reduced  to  the  alterna- 
tive of  ending  an  evil  for  which  she  has  no  remedy. 

But,  while  the  ebb  of  life  alternates  with  a  tide,  the 
struggle  against  a  natural  instinct  is  the  struggle  of 
Prometheus  against  the  vulture  of  Jove ;  in  the  inter- 
vals of  torment  the  martyr  may  forget  his  misery,  but 
the  torturer  returns,  and  the  poisoned  arrows  of  the  in- 
terventor  can  bring  only  a  temporary  relief.  Man  can 
not  conquer  a  God-sent  instinct,  though  he  may  for  a 
time  defy  it — with  poison  ;  the  most  incurable  victims 
of  intemperance  are  those  who  resort  to  stimulants  less 
for  the  sake  of  intoxication  than  for  the  benumbing 
after-effect  which  helps  them  to  stifle  the  voice  of  out- 
raged Nature.  It  is  a  significant  circumstance  that  the 
consumption  of  intoxicating  poisons  increases  in  times 
of  famine  and  general  distress ;  the  Christian  dogma  of 
the  reformatory  value  of  misery  has,  indeed,  been  re- 
futed by  the  most  dreadful  arguments  of  the  world's 
history ;  the  unhappiest  nations  are  not  only  the  most 
immoral  but  the  most  selfish  and  the  meanest  in  every 
ugly  sense  of  the  word :  virtues  do  not  flourish  on  a 
trampled  soil.  The  same  with  individuals;  injustice, 
disappointment,  and  bodily  pain,  can  turn  the  noblest 
man  into  a  querulous  tyrant,  a  harmless  kitten  into  a 
spiteful  cat.  Happiness,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  sun- 


188  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

shine  that  decks  the  moral  world  with  flowers ;  making 
earth  a  heaven  would  be  the  surest  way  of  turning  men 
into  angels ;  the  hardest  heart  will  melt  under  the  per- 
sistent rays  of  kindness  and  happiness.  Happy  chil- 
dren have  no  time  to  be  wicked;  it  is  not  worth  their 
while  to  waste  the  merry  hours  on  vices.  Genius,  too, 
is  a  child  of  light ;  the  Grecian  worship  of  joy  favored 
the  development  of  every  human  science,  while  the  mo- 
nastic worship  of  sorrow  produced  nothing  but  monsters 
and  chimeras ;  for  to  modem  science  Christianity  bears 
about  the  same  relation  as  the  plague  to  the  quarantine. 

But,  aside  from  all  this,  mirth  has  an  hygienic  value 
that  can  hardly  be  overrated  while  our  social  life  re- 
mains what  the  slavery  of  vices  and  dogmas  has  made  it. 
Joy  has  been  called  the  sunshine  of  the  heart,  yet  the 
same  sun  that  calls  forth  the  flowers  of  a  plant  is  also 
needed  to  expand  its  leaves  and  ripen  its  fruits ;  and 
without  the  stimulus  of  exhilarating  pastimes  perfect 
bodily  health  is  as  impossible  as  moral  and  mental  vigor. 
And,  as  sure  as  a  succession  of  uniform  crops  will  ex- 
haust the  best  soil,  the  daily  repetition  of  a  monotonous 
occupation  will  wear  out  the  best  man.  Body  and 
mind  require  an  occasional  change  of  employment,  or 
else  a  liberal  supply  of  fertilizing  recreations,  and  this 
requirement  is  a  factor  whose  omission  often  foils  the 
arithmetic  of  our  political  economists. 

To  the  creatures  of  the  wilderness  affliction  comes 
generally  in  the  form  of  impending  danger — famine  or 
persistent  persecution ;  and  under  such  circumstances 
the  modifications  of  the  vital  process  seem  to  operate 
against  its  long  continuance ;  well-wishing  Nature  sees 
her  purpose  defeated,  and  the  vital  energy  flags,  the  sap 
of  life  runs  to  seed.  On  the  same  principle  an  existence 
of  joyless  drudgery  seems  to  drain  the  springs  of  health, 


RECREATION.  1  s;» 

even  at  an  age  when  they  can  draw  upon  the  largest 
inner  resources ;  hope,  too  often  baffled,  at  last  withdraws 
her  aid  ;  the  tongue  may  be  attuned  to  canting  hymns 
of  consolation,  but  the  heart  can  not  be  deceived,  and 
with  its  sinking  pulse  the  strength  of  life  ebbs  away. 
Nine  tenths  of  our  city  children  are  literally  starving 
for  lack  of  recreation ;  not  the  means  of  life,  but  its 
object,  civilization  has  defrauded  them  of;  they  feel 
a  want  which  bread  can  only  aggravate,  for  only  hunger 
helps  them  to  forget  the  misery  of  ennui.  Their  pallor 
is  the  sallow  hue  of  a  cellar-plant;  they  would  be 
healthier  if  they  were  happier.  I  would  undertake  to 
cure  a  sickly  child  with  fun  and  rye-bread  sooner  than 
with  tidbits  and  tedium. 

Mirth  is  a  remedy ;  the  remarkable  longevity  of  the 
French  aristocrats,*  in  spite  of  their  dietetic  and  othi-r 
sins,  can  with  certainty  be  ascribed  to  the  gayety  of 
their  pastimes;  almost  any  mode  of  diversion  is  better 
than  the  deadly  monotony  of  our  Sabbatarian  machin.- 
life;  even  excursion-trains  have  added  years  to  tin- 
average  longevity  of  our  city  populations.  In  a  tem- 
perature of  —  56°  Falir.,  Elisha  Kane  kept  his  men  in 
good  hcnlth  by  devoting  a  part  of  the  lonir  night  to 
burlesques  and  pantomimes;  but,  as  a  sanitary  precau- 
tion, dramaturgy  was  only  collateral  to  the  substitution 
of  tea  for  grog;  and  the  most  striking  illnstiatioi 
the  hygienic  effect  of  merriment  is  therefore,  perhaps, 


Pierre, 

Duke  of 

Palinet,   eighty-five;   Fontencllc,   one  hundred;    Joinvillo,   nm.-ty-,,, 
L'EneloS,eigh"ty-nine;  Ln  Maintcnon,  eighty-four ;  Rochefoucauld  ci; 
ty;Villar9,ciRhty.one;  Sully,  eighty-one ;  Montfaucon,  eighty-ax ;  & 
eighty-two;  Talleyrand,  eighty-four. 


190  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

the  experience  of  Dr.  Brehm,  the  manager  of  the  Ham- 
burg Zoological  Garden.  Having  noticed  that  the  mon- 
keys in  the  happy-family  department  generally  outlived 
the  soh'tary  prisoners,  he  concluded  to  try  the  Swiss 
nostalgia-remedy,  "fun  and  cider  -  punch ";  but  the 
liquid  stimulants  proved  superfluous :  the  introduction 
of  a  grapple-swing  and  a  few  toys  sufficed  to  reverse 
the  shadow  on  the  dial  of  death,  and  man  by  man  the 
quadrumana  recovered  from  a  disease  which  evidently 
had  been  nothing  but  ennui,  since  the  mortuary  lists  of 
the  last  decade  showed  an  almost  uniform  death-rate 
throughout  the  year,  except  in  midsummer,  when  the 
monkey-house  could  be  thoroughly  ventilated. 

Men  of  a  cheerful  disposition  are  generally  long- 
lived,  and  anything  tending  to  counteract  the  influence 
of  worry  and  discontent  directly  contributes  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  health.  Despair  can  paralyze  the  energy 
of  the  vital  functions  like  a  sudden  poison,  while  the 
fulfillment  of  a  long-cherished  hope  has  effected  the 
cure  of  many  diseases ;  history  abounds  with  examples 
of  strong  men  dying  of  sheer  grief,*  as  well  as  of  a 
great  success  giving  to  others  a  new  lease  of  life.  Even 
hope  can  sustain  the  vital  powers  under  severe  trials ; 
the  appearance  of  a  distant  sail  or  a  leeward  coast  has 
often  restored  the  strength  of  shipwrecked  sailors  who 
would  have  succumbed  to  another  hour  of  hopeless 
famine.  A  mere  day-dream  of  a  possible  deliverance 
from  toil  or  captivity  prolongs  the  life  of  thousands 
who  would  not  survive  an  awakening  to  the  realities  of 
their  situation. 

But  "  hope  deferred "  sickens  the  body  as  well  as 

*  E.  g.,  Isocrates,  Kepler,  Mehemet  Ali,  Bajazet,  Politianus,  Colum- 
bus, Maupertuis,  Pitt,  the  two  Napoleons,  Nicholas  I,  Joseph  II,  Platen, 
Abd-el-Kader,  Shamyl,  Horace  Greeley. 


RECREAflOX.  191 

the  soul ;  and,  next  to  the  happiness  of  a  life  whose  la- 
bors are  their  own  immediate  reward,  is  the  confident 
anticipation  of  a  period  of  compensating  enjoyments  at 
the  end  of  every  day,  of  every  week,  and  every  year,  or 
part  of  a  year.  With  a  few  playthings  the  youngsters 
cf  the  nursery  will  find  pastimes  enough,  though  even 
the  youngest  should  have  some  corner  of  the  house 
where  they  can  feel  quite  at  home ;  but  the  necessity 
of  providing  special  times  and  modes  of  recreation  be- 
gins with  the  day  when  a  child  is  delivered  to  the  task- 
master, when  its  employment  during  any  considerable 
part  of  the  twenty-four  hours  becomes  laborious  and 
compulsory.  Children  under  ten  should  never  be  kept 
at  school  for  more  than  three  consecutive  hours,  unless 
the  variety  of  the  successive  lessons  forms  itself  a  sort 
of  recreation,  as  drawing  after  grammar,  or  writing 
alternating  with  "  calisthenics  "  or  vocal  exercises.  If 
the  principal  meal  of  the  day  is  taken  at  noon,  the  mi<l- 
day  recess  should  be  extended  to  at  least  three  hours ; 
otherwise  one  hour  is  more  than  sufficient,  especially 
where  the  recess  sports  are  diverting  enough  to  forget 
the  school-room  for  a  few  minutes.  The  more  com- 
pletely a  special  train  of  thoughts  can  for  a  while  be 
dismissed  from  the  mind,  with  the  more  profit  can  it 
afterward  be  resumed,  for  the  same  reason  that  the  suc- 
cessful practice  of  any  bodily  exercise  requires  a  per 
ical  relaxation  of  the  strained  muscles.  But,  if  the  in- 
stinct of  rooks  and  savages  can  be  trusted,  the  recreation 
time, par  excellence,  \s>  the  evening  hour;  and  with  a 
little  management  young  and  old  bondmen  of  drudgery 
might  consecrate  the  end  of  every  day  to  health-restor- 
ing sports.  All  schools  ought  to  close  at  4  P.  M.  ;  and, 
till  we  can  enforce  the  eight-hours  labor  law,  the  socie- 
ties for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  should  liberate  at  least 


192  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

the  younger  factory-slaves  two  hours  before  the  sunset 
of  a  summer  day,  in  order  to  give  them  a  chance  for  a 
few  minutes'  recreation  between  supper  and  bed-time. 
"  Horas  non  conto,  nisi  serenas  "  was  the  usual  inscrip- 
tion of  the  Roman  sun-dials,  but  the  Arabs  of  the  desert 
count  time  by  nights  instead  of  days ;  and  for  us,  too, 
sunset  is  the  beginning  of  the  most  pleasant  and  most 
play-inviting  hour  of  the  twenty-four ;  the  day's  work 
is  done,  no  fear  of  interruption  damps  the  merriment  of 
the  moment,  and  to  the  fatigue  of  boisterous  sports  the 
coming  night  offers  the  refuge  of  rest  and  sleep.  For 
the  same  reason  the  compulsory  somnolence  of  our 
Quaker-sabbath  makes  Saturday  night  the  Saturnalia- 
time  of  many  Christian  nations ;  the  Sunday  laws  have 
reduced  them  to  amusements  which  can,  and  too  often 
ought  to,  dispense  with  daylight,  and  in  the  larger  cities 
apprentices  and  factory-boys  have  the  alternative  of 
joining  in  such  night  revels  or  postponing  their  amuse- 
ments to  the  musical  resurrection  of  the  saints  in  light, 
for  the  free  Saturday  is  unfortunately  confined  to  pri- 
mary schools  and  a  few  private  seminaries.  In  German 
schools  Saturday  is  at  least  a  half-holiday ;  i.  e.,  the 
scholars  are  dismissed  at  noon,  and  at  once  make  for  the 
fields  and  woods,  except  in  winter,  when  the  disciples 
of  the  Turnerhall  assemble  on  the  last  afternoon  in  the 
week. 

With  our  present  helplessness  against  the  lethargic 
influence  of  the  midsummer  heat,  the  conventional 
time  of  the  long  vacations  is  well  selected,  but,  if  a 
hoped-for  diet  and  dress  reform  shall  have  taught  us  to 
pass  the  dog-days  with  comfort,  it  would  be  more  sen- 
sible to  divide  the  two  months :  four  free  weeks  in 
June,  in  time  for  the  first  huckleberries  and  butterflies, 
and  four  in  October — the  best  season  for  a  long  excur- 


RECREATION.  193 

sion  to  the  paradise  of  a  primitive  mountain-range, 
nowadays  about  the  only  sanctuary  of  Nature  where 
her  worshipers  can  shake  their  shoulders  free  from  the 
yoke  of  prejudice  and  escape  from  the  atmosphere  of 
hypocrisy  to  a  higher  and  purer  medium.  For  the  chil- 
dren of  the  poor  every  city  should  have  a  Kinder-park 
— not  a  ceremonious  promenade,  with  sacred  groves  and 
unapproachable  grass  plots,  but  a  public  play-ground 
with  shade-trees  and  swings,  May-poles,  gymnastic  con- 
trivances and  a  free  bathing-house,  and  room  for  all  the 
free  menageries  and  music-halls  which  the  Peabodies  of 
the  future  might  feel  inclined  to  add.  Inactivity  is  no 
recreation ;  we  should  not  spend  our  leisure  hours  like 
machines,  whose  best  relief  is  a  temporary  surcease  of 
toil,  but  like  living  creatures  of  the  God  who  intended 
that  the  joys  of  life  should  outweigh  its  sorrows.  Let 
us  provide  healthful  pastimes,  or  the  victims  of  an- 
cism  will  resort  to  vices — dram-drinking,  gambling,  and 
secret  sins— for  even  pernicious  excitements  become  at- 
tractive as  a  relief  from  the  insupportable  dullness  of  a 
canting  Quaker  life. 

Ennui  has  never  made  a  human  being  better  or  more 
industrious ;  on  the  contrary,  the  hope  of  a  merry  even- 
ing would  inspire  a  day-laborer  with  a  good-humor  and 
an  energy  unknown  to  the  languid  rezignados  of  our 
present  system.  The  confident  expectation  even  of  a 
physical  pleasure  imparts  to  the  current  of  life  an  on- 
ward impulse  that  seems  to  react  on  the  mind  as  well 
as  on  every  function  of  the  automatic  organism ;  the 
first  Napoleon,  who  enlivened  the  tedium  of  camp-lifV 
with  Olympic  festivities,  and  did  not  deem  it  below  his 
dignity  to  make  his  own  maitre  de  plaisir,  could  in  re- 
turn rely  on  his  men  to  endure  fatigues  that  would  have 
killed  the  barrack-slaves  of  his  enemies.  It  is  not  hard 

9 


194  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION 

work  that  drives  our  young  men  to  seek  a  Lethe  in 
alcohol :  we  read  of  Grecian  soldiers  marching  fifty 
miles  a  day  in  heavy  armor ;  of  hunters  running  down 
a  wild-boar,  and  of  teamsters  yoking  themselves  to  a 
car  when  their  horses  had  broken  down.  Many  of  our 
New  England  boys,  who  go  on  a  whaling  cruise  rather 
than  die  of  ennui,  would  gladly  consent  to  work,  in  the 
ancient  sense  of  the  word,  if  they  could  exchange  their 
Pecksniff-day  for  a  Grecian  festival.  The  Aryan  na- 
tions, too,  had  their  sacred  days  and  sacred  rites,  but 
their  Nature- worship  was  the  mist  that  rises  from  the 
woods  and  meadows,  and  blends  with  the  ethereal  hues 
of  the  sky ;  the  Hebrew  priestcraft  dogma  is  a  poison- 
cloud  which  for  centuries  has  darkened  the  light  of  the 
sun  and  blighted  the  fairest  flowers. 

In  choosing  the  mode  of  a  child's  recreations,  it 
should  be  borne  in  mind  that  their  main  purpose  is  to 
restore  the  tone  of  the  mind  and  its  harmony  with  the 
physical  instincts  by  supplying  the  chief  deficiencies  of 
our  ordinary  employment.  For  a  hard-working  black- 
smith, fun,  pure  and  simple,  would  be  a  sufficient  pas- 
time, while  brain-workers  need  a  recreation  that  com- 
bines amusement  with  physical  exercise — the  unloosen- 
ing of  the  brain-fiber  with  the  tension  of  the  muscles. 
Emulation  and  the  presence  of  relatives  and  school-mates 
impart  to  competitive  gymnastics  a  charm  which  a  spir- 
ited boy  would  not  exchange  for  the  passive  pleasure 
of  witnessing  the  best  circus-performance.  Wrestling, 
lance-throwing,  archery,  base-ball,  and  a  well-contested 
foot-race,  can  awaken  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Grecian 
palaestra,  and  professional  gymnasts  will  take  the  same 
delight  in  the  equally  healthful  though  less  dramatic 
trials  of  strength  at  the  horizontal  bar.  But,  on  the 
play-ground,  such  exercises  should  be  divested  from  the 


RECREATION.  195 

least  appearance  of  being  a  task— even  children  can  not 
be  happy  on  compulsion. 

There  is  also  too  much  in-door  and  in-town  work 
about  the  present  life  of  our  school-boys.  Encourage 
their  love  of  the  woods ;  let  us  make  holidays  a  syno- 
nym of  picnic  excursions,  and  enlarge  the  definition  of 
camp-meetings;  of  all  the  known  modes  of  inspiration, 
forest  air  and  the  view  of  a  beautiful  landscape  are  the 
most  inexpensive,  especially  from  a  moral  stand-point, 
being  never  followed  by  a  splenetic  reaction.  A  ramble 
in  the  depths  of  a  pathless  forest,  or  on  the  heights  of  an 
Alpenland,  between  rocks  and  lonely  mountain-mead- 
ows, opens  well-springs  of  life  unknown  to  the  prison- 
ers of  the  city  tenements. 

But  the  chief  curse  of  our  in-door  life  is,  after  all, 
its  dullness ;  and  its  direct  antidote  merriment,  there- 
fore the  chief  point  about  all  real  recreations.  Fun 
and  laughter  have  become  the  most  effective  cordials  of 
our  materia  medica,  and  their  promotion  a  most  impor- 
tant branch  of  the  science  of  happiness.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  genuine  frolic  in  the  stifling  atmosphere 
of  a  stove-room ;  the  shady  lawn  in  summer  and  the 
open  hall  in  winter  make  a  better  play-ground  than  the 
stuffy  nursery;  but  freedom  from  restraint  is  a  still 
more  essential  element  of  mirth.  Even  in  the  despotic 
countries  of  the  Old  World  the  representative  of  the 
government  attends  the  public  fetes  in  disguise,  and,  if 
the  schoolmaster  wants  to  watch  the  recess-sports  of  Ins 
pupils,  let  him  do  so  unobserved ;  if  yon  can  trust  your 
children  at  all,  trust  them  not  to  abuse  the  freedom  of 
their  recreations,  or  else  conduct  your  surveillance  i 
unobtrusively  as  possible.  Children  detest  ceremonies 
in  our  etiquette-ridden  towns  too  many  boys  are  alit 
under  their  fathers'  roof;  give  them  one  hour  in  the 


196  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

day  and  one  corner  in  the  house  where  they  are  really 
at  home,  where  they  can  feel  that  the  permission  to 
enjoy  themselves  is  granted  as  a  right  rather  than  as  a 
concession  to  the  foibles  of  youth.  If  I  had  to  board 
my  children  in  an  old  hull,  like  Anderson's  sea-shell 
peddler,  I  would  let  them  store  their  toy-shells  in  the 
caboose,  and  keep  it  sacred  from  the  intrusion  of  the 
forecastle  folk,  to  let  my  little  ones  know  that  the  be- 
lievers in  the  divinity  of  joy,  though  in  a  sad  minority 
in  this  pessimistic  world,  have  rights  and  perquisites 
which  I  mean  to  maintain  against  all  comers. 

It  does  not  cost  much  to  make  the  little  folks  happy ; 
time,  and  permission  to  use  it,  is  all  the  most  of  them 
ask ;  but  make  them  sure  that  the  pursuit  of  happiness 
is  not  a  contraband  affair,  but  a  legitimate  and  praise- 
worthy business.  Nor  can  it  do  any  harm  to  let  them 
accumulate  a  little  stock  in  trade — marbles,  tops,  dolls, 
and  magic  lanterns,  and,  if  possible,  a  few  pets;  in 
winter-time,  and  for  the  bigger  boys,  a  private  menage- 
rie of  squirrels  and  gophers  is  a  better  aid  to  domestic 
habits  than  a  hundred  interviews  with  the  home-mis- 
sionary. Connive  at  a  snow-ball  fight  or  a  torn  hat ; 
and  be  sure  that  a  pair  of  skates,  fishing-tackle,  and  a 
base-ball  outfit  are  a  better  investment  than  a  medicine- 
chest.  Make  your  children  happy ;  all  Nature  pro- 
claims the  plan  of  a  benevolent  Creator;  let  them  feel 
that  their  life  is  in  harmony  with  that  plan — that  exist- 
ence has  a  positive  value,  an  attraction  that  would  re- 
main, though  the  fear  of  death  were  removed. 

And,  above  all,  let  no  cloud  of  superstition  darken 
the  sunshine  of  your  Sundays  ;  and,  in  countries  where 
the  knell  of  the  church-bells  drives  your  children  from 
the  play-grounds  of  the  city,  take  them  out  to  the 
woods  and  mountains,  and  let  them  worship  the  Cre- 


RECREATIOX.  197 

ator  in  his  grandest  temple ;  teach  them  to  love  his  day 
by  making  it  the  happiest  day  in  the  week.  Or,  dis- 
regard the  bells  and  brave  the  consequences:  till  we 
can  repeal  the  sabbath  laws,  let  us  defy  them  in  every 
way  and  at  any  risk ;  in  dealing  with  the  despotism  of 
the  mythology-mongers,  legal  obligations  are  out  of  the 
question ;  the  right  of  Nature  enters  the  lists  against 
the  right  of  brutal  force  leagued  with  imposture. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

REMEDIAL   EDUCATION. 
"We  can  not  buy  health ;  we  must  deserve  it."— FRANCIS  BICHAT. 

"  PREVENTION  is  better  than  cure  and  far  cheaper," 
said  John  Locke,  two  hundred  years  ago ;  and  the  his- 
tory of  medical  science  has  since  made  it  more  and 
more  probable  that,  in  a  stricter  sense  of  the  word, 
prevention  is  the  only  possible  cure.  By  observing  the 
health  laws  of  Nature,  a  sound  constitution  can  be  very 
easily  preserved,  but,  if  a  violation  of  those  laws  has 
brought  on  a  disease,  all  we  can  do  by  way  of  "  curing  " 
that  disease  is  to  remove  the  cause ;  in  other  words,  to 
prevent  the  continued  operation  of  the  predisposing  cir- 
cumstances. 

Suppressing  the  symptoms  in  any  other  way  means 
only  to  change  the  form  of  the  disease,  or  to  postpone 
its  crisis.  Thus,  mercurial  salves  will  cleanse  the  skin 
by  driving  the  ulcers  from  the  surface  to  the  interior  of 
the  body ;  opiates  stop  a  flux  only  by  paralyzing  the 
bowels — i.  e.,  turning  their  morbid  activity  into  a  mor- 
bid inactivity ;  the  symptoms  of  pneumonia  can  be  sup- 
pressed by  bleeding  the  patient  till  the  exhausted  system 
has  to  postpone  the  crisis  of  the  disease.  This  process, 
the  "  breaking  up  of  a  sickness,"  in  the  language  of  the 
old-school  allopathists,  is  therefore  in  reality  only  an  in- 
terrupting of  it,  a  temporary  interruption  of  the  symp- 
toms. "We  might  as  well  try  to  cure  the  sleepiness  of  a 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  199 

weary  child  by  pinching  its  eyelids,  or  the  hunger  of  a 
whining  dog  by  compressing  liis  throat. 

Drugs  are  not  wholly  useless.    If  my  life  depended 
upon  a  job  of  work  that  had  to  be  finished  before  morn- 
ing, and  the  inclination  to  fall  asleep  was  getting  irre- 
sistible, I  should  not  hesitate  to  defy  Nature,  and  keep 
myself  awake  with  cup  after  cupful  of  strong  black  cof- 
fee.    If  I  were  afflicted  with  a  sore,  spreading  rapidly 
from  my  temple  toward  my  nose,  I  should  suppress  it 
by  the  shortest  process,  even  by  deliberately  producing 
a  larger  sore  elsewhere,  rather  than  let  the  smaller  one 
destroy  my  eyesight.    There  are  also  two  or  three  forms 
of  disease  which  have  (thus  far)  resisted  all  unmedicinal 
cures,  and  can  hardly  be  trusted  to  the  healing  powers 
of  Nature — the  lues  venerea,  scabies,  and  prurigo — be- 
cause, as  Claude  Bernard  suggests,  their  symptoms  are 
probably  due  to  the  agency  of  microscopic  para^ 
which  oppose  to  the  action  of  the  vital  forces  a  life- 
energy  of  their  own,  or,  as  Dr.  Jennings  puts  it,  "be- 
cause art  has  here  to  interfere— not  for  the  purpose  of 
breaking  up  diseased  action,  but  for  the  removal  of  the 
cause  of  that  action,  the  destruction  of  an  active  virus 
that  possesses  the  power  of  self-perpetuation  beyond  the 
dislodging  ability  of  Nature." 

But  with  those  rare  exceptions  it  is  better  to  direcl 
our  efforts  against  the  cause  rather  than  the  symptoms 
—i  e  ,  in  about  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hundred  i 
not  only  the  safer  but  also  the  shorter  way  to  avc 
drugs,  reform  our  habits,  and,  for  the  rest,  let 
have  her  course ;  for,  properly  speaking,  disease  itaelf 
a  reconstructive  process,  an  expulsive  effort,  whose 
ruption  compels  Nature  to  do  double  work;  t 
her  operations   against  the  ailment  after  expelling  a 
worse  enemy-the  drug.    If  a  drugged  patient  rec< 


200  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

the  true  explanation  is  that  his  constitution  was  strong 
enough  to  overcome  both  the  disease  and  the  druggist. 

Dr.  Isaac  Jennings,*  the  greatest  pathologist  (or,  at 
least,  -paiho-gnomisf)  of  our  century,  was  sadly  misunder- 
stood, chiefly,  I  believe,  because  he  called  his  method 
the  "  Let-alone  Plan."  Prevention  Plan,  or  Unmedici- 
nal  Cure,  would  have  been  a  better  word.  Diseases 
do  not  want  to  be  let  alone ;  they  call  loudly  for  relief 
— not,  though,  from  their  own  symptoms,  which,  in 
fact,  are  so  many  alarm-signals,  but  from  the  obstacle 
which  has  forced  the  vital  process  to  deviate  from  its 
normal  course.  Pain,  in  all  its  forms,  is  an  appeal  for 
help,  and  the  urgency  of  the  appeal  corresponds  to  the 
degree  of  the  distress ;  probably,  also,  to  the  possibility 
of  relieving  that  distress.  A  deadly  blow  stuns — the 
vital  forces  yield  without  a  struggle.  The  last  stage  of 
pulmonary  consumption  is  a  comparatively  painless  deli- 
quium — when  a  conflagration  grows  uncontrollable,  the 
alarm-bells  cease  to  ring.  Yellow-fever  doctors  give 
up  their  patients  for  lost  when  the  burning  headache 
changes  into  a  lethargic  stupor.  The  last  sensations  of 
drowning,  strangled,  and  freezing  persons  are  said  to  be 
rather  pleasurable  than  otherwise.  In  certain  cases  the 
appeal  for  help  continues  into  an  apparently  hopeless 
stage  of  the  disease.  Apparently,  I  say :  Nature  is  too 
practical  to  waste  her  efforts  on  a  forlorn  hope ;  her  re- 
sistance yields  to  necessity ;  and,  when  the  art  of  heal- 
ing shall  devote  itself  to  the  exegesis  of  disease  rather 
than  to  the  exorcism  of  its  symptoms,  that  rule  will 
probably  be  found  to  apply  to  pathology  as  well  as  to 
chemistry  and  ethics. 

All  bodily  ailments  are  more  or  less  urgent  appeals 

*  Author  of  the  "  Treatise  on  Medical  Reform." 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  201 

for  help ;  nor  can  we  doubt  in  what  that  help  should 
consist.  The  more  fully  we  understand  the  nature  of 
any  disease,  the  more  clearly  we  see  that  the  discovery 
of  the  cause  means  the  discovery  of  the  cure.  Many 
sicknesses  are  caused  by  poisons,  foisted  upon  the  sys- 
tem under  the  name  of  tonic  beverages  or  remedial 
drugs ;  the  only  cure  is  to  eschew  the  poison.  Others, 
by  habits  more  or  less  at  variance  with  the  health  laws 
of  Nature ;  to  cure  such  we  have  to  reform  our  habits. 
There  is  nothing  accidental,  and  rarely  anything  inevi- 
table, about  a  disease ;  we  can  safely  assume  that  nine 
out  of  ten  complaints  have  been  caused  and  can  be 
cured  by  the  sufferers  (or  their  nurses)  themselves. 
"  God  made  man  upright "  ;  every  prostrating  malady 
is  a  deviation  from  the  state  of  Nature.  The  infant, 
"mewling  and  puking  in  its  nurse's  arms,"  is  an  ab- 
normal phenomenon.  Infancy  should  be  a  period  of 
exceptional  health;  the  young  of  other  creatures  are 
healthier,  as  well  as  prettier,  purer,  and  merrier,  than 
the  adults,  yet  the  childhood  years  of  the  human  ani- 
mal are  the  years  of  sorest  sickliness ;  statistics  show 
that  among  the  Caucasian  races  men  of  thirty  have 
more  hope  to  reach  a  good  old  age  than  a  new-born 
child  has  to  reach  the  end  of  its  second  year.  The 
reason  is  this :  the  health  theories  of  the  average  Chris- 
tian man  and  woman  are  so  egregiously  wrong,  t 
only  the  opposition  of  their  better  instincts  helps  tlu-in 
— against  their  conscience,  as  it  were— to  maintain  t  lie- 
struggle  for  a  tolerable  existence  with  anything  like 
success,  while  the  helpless  infant  has  to  conform  to 
those  theories — with  the  above  results. 

"  I  have  long  ceased  to  doubt,"  says  Dr.  Schrodt, 
« that,  apart  from  the  effects  of  wounds,  the  chances  of 
health  or  disease  are  in  our  own  hands ;  and,  if  people 


202  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

knew  only  half  the  facts  pointing  that  way,  they  would 
feel  ashamed  to  be  sick,  or  to  have  sick  children." 

A  vestige  of  the  -hygienic  insight  which  in  savages 
appears  to  be  a  gift  of  Nature,  would,  indeed,  almost 
obviate  the  necessity  of  a  treatise  on  the  diseases  of 
infancy ;  nay,  wherever  people  have  got  rid  of  four  or 
five  of  the  grossest  physiological  prejudices,  the  art  of 
preserving  the  health  of  a  healthy-born  child  is  even 
now  a  sort  of  intuition  with  every  true  mother ;  but 
nurses,  physicians,  and  foster-parents,  are  often  called 
upon  to  mend  the  mistakes  of  their  predecessors  and 
to  undertake  a  task  whose  less  intuitive  duties  may  be 
facilitated  by  some  of  the  following  hints  on  remedial 
education : 

Shakespeare's  "mewling  and  puking"  representa- 
tive of  babyhood  was  probably  overfed.  The  repre- 
sentative nurse  believes  in  cramming;  babies,  like 
prize-pigs,  are  most  admired  when  they  are  ready  to 
die  with  fatty  degeneration.  The  child  is  coaxed  to 
suckle  almost  every  half-hour,  day  after  day,  till  habit 
begets  a  morbid  appetite,  analogous  to  the  dyspeptic's 
stomach  distress  which  no  food  can  relieve  till  over- 
repletion  brings  on  a  sort  of  gastric  lethargy. 

"Many  hand -fed  infants,  weighing  about  ten 
pounds,  will  swallow  one  and  a  half  quart  of  cow's 
milk  in  one  day,"  says  Dr.  Page  ;  *  "  now,  considering 
the  needs  of  a  moderately  working  man  to  be  equal  in 
proportion  to  size,  a  man  weighing  one  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  should  take  fifteen  times  the  quantity 
swallowed  by  the  infant,  or  twenty-two  and  a  half 
quarts — a  quart  for  nearly  every  hour  of  the  day  and 
night!" 

*  "  How  to  feed  a  Baby  to  make  it  healthy  and  happy,"  p.  23. 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  i;,,:> 

Vomiting,  restlessness,  and  gross  fatness,  are  some 
of  the  symptoms  of  the  surfeit-disease,  and  its  proper 
cure  is— not  soothing-sirups,  but— fasting.  Four  nurs- 
ings a  day  are  enough,  five  more  than  enough,  and  the 
ejection  of  milk  after  suckling  is  a  sure  sign  that  the 
quantity  given  at  each  meal  should  be  diminished.  A 
pint  of  milk  a  day  is  about  as  much  as  a  dyspeptic  in- 
fant can  really  digest,  and  to  cram  it  merely  in  order 
to  stop  its  crying  is  quite  mistaking  the  cause  of  its 
restlessness ;  a  half-starved  child  will  not  cry,  because 
the  languor  of  insufficient  nutrition  is  a  pleasure  com- 
pared with  the  gastric  torments  of  the  surfeit-disease. 
Children  actually  perishing  with  hunger  will  utter  from 
time  to  time  a  peculiar  sharp  cry,  almost  like  the  call  of 
a  hungry  nest-bird,  but  the  first  mouthful  of  food  makes 
them  relapse  into  a  sort  of  dreamy  silence. 

There  are  nurslings  who  get  at  least  four  times  more 
milk  and  pap  than  they  can  possibly  assimilate,  and 
whose  digestive  organs  have  to  reject  the  surplus  in  a 
way  that  would  make  life  intolerable  to  an  adult,  though 
most  nurses  seem  to  consider  retching  and  "  dripping  " 
as  a  normal  phase  of  infant  life. 

Drugs  only  complicate  the  disorder :  many  children 
whose  constitution  would  have  resisted  the  cramming 
process  succumb  to  opiates,  "  surfeit-water  "  and  ipecac- 
uanha; but,  unless  foul  dormitories  still  further  ag- 
gravate the  evil,  each  night  generally  undoes  the  mis- 
chief of  the  day ;  the  child  becomes  plethoric  with  fat ; 
Nature  has  shifted  the  burden  from  the  vital  organs  to 
the  tegumental  tissues,  and  in  hopes  of  final  relief  man- 
ages to  hold  the  fort  of  life  against  daily  and  compli- 
cated attacks.  Eelief  comes  at  last  when  the  nursling 
is  weaned  and  reduced  from  ten  or  twelve  to  three 
meals  a  day.  The  after  effects  of  medication  may  re- 


204  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

tard  recovery  for  a  while,  but,  the  main  cause  being 
removed,  the  morbid  symptoms  disappear  in  the  course 
of  four  or  five  months. 

A  less  frequent  but  (through  gross  maltreatment) 
often  more  dangerous  disease  is  scrofula,  the  cachectic 
degeneration  of  the  humors  resulting  from  the  com- 
bined influence  of  unwholesome  food  and  foul  air.  In 
the  rural  districts  of  our  milk  and  corn-bread  States 
scrofulous  children  are  as  rare  as  white  wolves  in  the 
tropics ;  in  Northern  Europe  the  disease  is  now  far  less 
prevalent  than  formerly ;  and  the  operatives  of  our 
large  cities,  in  spite  of  their  wretched  habitations,  might 
avoid  it  altogether,  or  at  least  obviate  its  more  serious 
consequences,  but  for  the  fatuous  quackery  which  so 
often  turns  a  transient  skin-disease  into  a  chronic  lung- 
complaint.  In  the  middle  ages,  when  science  was  at  its 
lowest  ebb  and  supernaturalism  in  full  tide,  the  "  king's- 
evil"  was  considered  an  almost  unavoidable  disease, 
resisting  all  common  remedies  and  yielding  only  to  the 
mandate  of  royalty — the  touch  of  a  legitimate  king, 
supplemented  by  the  mandamus  of  a  clerical  exorcist. 
In  the  fifteenth  century  from  eight  to  twelve  thousand 
families  per  year  performed  long  journeys  to  the  En- 
glish capital;  Charles  II,  in  the  course  of  his  reign, 
touched  near  a  hundred  thousand  persons.  The  days 
on  which  the  miracle  was  to  be  wrought  were  solemnly 
notified  by  the  clergy  of  all  parish  churches  (Macaulay's 
"  History  of  England,"  Chapter  XIY).  Traveling  was 
expensive  in  those  days,  and,  scrofula  being  distinctively 
a  disease  of  the  poor,  nine  out  of  ten  patients  of  the  royal 
doctor  had  probably  come  afoot,  and  often  from  distances 
which  suggest  the  explanation  of  the  marvelous  cures : 
the  pilgrims  left  the  pest-air  of  their  hovels  behind,  and 
Nature  availed  herself  of  the  respite,  as  she  improves  a 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  205 

temporary  change  from  city  fumes  to  the  woodland  air 
of  some  rural  retreat  whose  salubriousness  is  ascribed  to 
the  accidental  presence  of  a  nauseous  sulphur-spring — 
the  one  abnormal  thing  about  the  place.     The  king's- 
evil  patients,  as  well  as  the  exorcists,  ascribed  the  cure 
to  what  Dr.  Joel  Brown  called  the  charisma  basilicon 
— the  healing  touch  of  the  Lord's  anointed — in  other 
words,  they  believed  that  the  cure  of  a  Yorkshire  man's 
disease  depended  upon  the  chance  of  the  Yorkshire 
man's  coming  in  contact  with  a  Londoner  who,  perhaps 
ten  or  twenty  years  ago,  had  undergone  the  rites  of  a 
certain  ceremony.     Imagination  probably  helped  a  lit- 
tle, for  after  the  spread  of  skepticism  "  perfect  cures 
became  much  less  frequent,"  as  Dr.  Brown  ha'ively  re- 
marks.    The  charisma  basilicon  has  now  fallen  into 
utter  discredit,  but  our  present  method  is  so  little  of  ail 
improvement  that  the  patients  of  a  future  century 
would  probably  prefer  to  resume  the  Whitehall  pilgrim- 
ages.    Instead  of  ventilating  our  houses  and  abolishing 
our  sauerkraut  (the  long-notorious  cachexia  of  tlu-  ill- 
housed  and  ill-fed  classes  having  sufficiently  indicated 
the  cause  of  the  malady),  we  suppress  the  morbid  symp- 
toms by  sarsaparilla,  iodide  of  potassium,  or  pati-nt 
"medicines":    only  reliable  liver-pills  and   infallible 
blood-purifiers— in  other  words,  we  believe  that 
cure  of  a  common  disease  depends  upon  the  accidi- 
or  providentially  ordained  discovery  of  some  mysterious 
compound.     The  bottom  error  is  the  same  as  in  t 
king's-evil  delusion,  and  can  be  easily  traced  to  i 
radical  fallacy  of  our  speculative  dogmas;  we  < 
gard  sin  and  disease  as  something  normal,  abongii 
and  unavoidable,  and  expect  salvation  from  mysten 
extra-natural  remedies,  while  the  truth  of  the  i 
trary  is  becoming  more  and  more  evident,  nam 


206  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

all  evil,  including  moral  and  physical  unsoundness,  is 
due,  and  generally  traceable,  to  wholly  abnormal  causes, 
and  (those  causes  being  removed)  recovery  the  effect  of 
the  self-acting  and  self -regulating  laws  of  Nature.  The 
removal  of  the  cause  is  a  remedy  which  the  sufferers 
from  almost  any  disease  might  prescribe  for  themselves, 
and  here  especially :  fresh  air  and  abstinence  from  in- 
digestible food,  particularly  pickles  and  fat  meat.  Pork 
is  not  the  only  unwholesome  kind  of  animal  food,  for 
Jews  are  not  exempt  from  scrofula,  and  were  formerly 
subject  to  a  still  worse  skin-disease ;  and,  if  we  had  not 
forgotten  the  art  of  interpreting  the  language  of  our 
instincts,  we  would  not  overlook  the  significancy  of  the 
circumstance  that  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  all  young 
children  detest  every  kind  of  fat  meat  except  in  the 
form  of  taste-deceiving  ragouts.  Farmer-boys,  who 
have  to  share  the  out-door  labors  of  their  parents,  can 
eat  with  comparative  impunity  many  things  which  only 
the  hardiest  of  their  city  comrades  can  digest :  pork, 
greasy  and  pickled  cabbages,  fritters,  and  salt  beef. 
Even  young  Hottentots  could  not  eat  such  stuff  without 
being  sooner  or  later  the  worse  for  it,  whenever  the 
counteracting  hardships  of  a  savage  life  alternate  with  a 
period  of  physical  inactivity.  But  children  afflicted 
with  cachectic  symptoms  should  at  once  be  restricted  to 
a  wholly  vegetable  and  non-stimulating  diet — farinace- 
ous preparations,  boiled  legumina,  and,  if  possible,  ripe, 
sweet  fruit. 

The  summer  diet  of  a  scrofulous  child  can  not  be 
too  frugal,  in  the  ancient  sense  of  the  word,  and,  where 
a  supply  of  ripe  tree-fruits  can  be  easily  obtained,  I 
should  think  it  the  best  plan  to  dispense  altogether 
with  made  dishes — for  a  while,  even  with  farinaceous 
dishes.  Parents  who  have  no  hesitation  in  cramming 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION. 

their  children  with  salt  pork,  beer,  and  sauerkraut, 
would  shudder  at  the  idea  of  feeding  them  on  fruit 
alone,  yet  the  happiest  of  all  visitors  to  the  southern 
Ehineland  are  probably  the  patients  of  a  Swabian  Trau- 
len-Kur,  where  dyspeptics,  etc.,  are  fed  almost  exclu- 
sively— often  for  days  together  quite  exclusively — on 
ripe,  sweet  grapes.  Combined  with  plenty  of  exercise 
in  the  bracing  air  of  a  highland  region,  the  efficacy  of 
the  grape-cure  surpasses  all  the  miracles  of  the  king's 
touch.  It  will  cure  children,  "  too  scrofulous  to  look 
out  of  their  eyes,"  cheaper  and  quicker  than  any  nos- 
trums, and  has  the  still  greater  advantage  of  eliminating 
instead  of  suppressing  the  virus. 

Those  who  deny  the  pharmaceutic  efficacy  of  the 
homo3opathic  sugar-pellets  can  not  deny  that,  in  this 
case,  homoeopathy  has  proved  the  possibility  of  curing 
diseases  without  any  drugs  at  all — merely  by  a  change 
of  diet  and  regimen.  Frugality,  abstinence,  bathing, 
ventilation,  cold  water,  and  exercise  in  the  open  air, 
have  already  superseded  half  the  materia  of  the  old 
medical  dogmatists,  and  personal  experience  has  con- 
vinced me  that  the  following  diseases  of  children  are 
amenable  to  a  strictly  hygienic  treatment. 

The  vicissitudes  necessarily  incident  to  an  out-door 
and  primitive  mode  of  life  are  never  the  first  causes  of 
any  disease,  though  they  may  sometimes  betray  ite  pres- 
ence. Bronchitis,  nowadays  perhaps  the  most  frequent 
of  all  infantile  diseases,  makes  no  exception  to  this  rule ; 
a  draught  of  cold  air  may  reveal  the  latent  progress  of 
the  disorder,  but  its  cause  is  long  confinement  in  a  vi- 
tiated and  overheated  atmosphere,  and  its  proper  rem- 
edy ventilation  and  a  mild,  phlegm-loosening  (saccha- 
rine) diet,  warm  sweet  milk,  sweet  oatmeal-porridge,  or 
honey-water.  Select  an  airy  bedroom,  and  do  not  be 


208  PHYSICAL   EDUCATION. 

afraid  to  open  the  windows ;  among  the  children  of  the 
Indian  tribes  who  brave  in  open  tents  the  terrible  win- 
ters of  the  Hudson  Bay  Territory,  bronchitis,  croup,  and 
diphtheria  are  wholly  unknown  ;  and  what  we  call  "  tak- 
ing cold "  might  often  be  more  correctly  described  as 
taking  hot ;  glowing  stoves,  and  even  open  fires,  in  a 
night-nursery,  greatly  aggravate  the  pernicious  effects 
of  an  impure  atmosphere.  The  first  paroxysm  of  croup 
can  be  promptly  relieved  by  very  simple  remedies :  fresh 
air  and  a  rapid  forward-and-backward  movement  of  the 
arms,  combined  in  urgent  cases  with  the  application  of 
a  flesh-brush  (or  piece  of  flannel)  to  the  neck  and  the 
upper  part  of  the  chest.  Paregoric  and  poppy-sirup 
stop  the  cough  by  lethargizing  the  irritability  and  thus 
preventing  the  discharge  of  the  phlegm  till  its  accumula- 
tion produces  a  second  and  far  more  dangerous  parox- 
ysm. These  second  attacks  of  croup  (after  the  admin- 
istration of  palliatives)  are  generally  the  fatal  ones. 
"When  the  child  is  convalescing,  let  him  beware  of  stimu- 
lating food  and  overheated  rooms.  Do  not  give  aperi- 
ent medicines  ;  costiveness,  as  an  after-effect  of  pleuritic 
affections,  will  soon  yield  to  fresh  air  and  a  vegetable 
diet. 

Worms. — Intestinal  parasites  are  symptoms  rather 
than  a  cause  of  defective  digestion,  and  drastic  medi- 
cines (calomel,  Glauber's  salt,  etc.)  are  merely  pallia- 
tives ;  even  a  change  of  diet  may  fail  to  afford  perma- 
nent relief  if  the  general  mode  of  life  favors  a  costive 
condition  of  the  bowels.  Like  maggots,  maw-worms 
seem  to  thrive  only  on  putrescent  substances,  on  accu- 
mulated ingesta  in  a  state  of  self-decomposition,  and 
disappear  as  soon  as  exercise,  cold  fresh  air,  and  a  fru- 
gal diet,  have  re-established  the  functional  vigor  of  the 
digestive  organs. 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  209 

Diarrhoea. — An  abnormal  looseness  of  the  bowels  is 
an  effort  of  Nature  to  rid  the  stomach  of  some  irritating 
substance,  and  suggests  the  agency  of  a  dietetic  abuse, 
either  in  quantity  or  in  quality.  An  excessive  quan- 
tum even  of  the  healthiest  food  will  purge  the  bowels 
like  a  drastic  poison,  unless  the  alimentary  wants — and 
consequently  the  assimilative  abilities  of  the  system — 
have  been  increased  by  active  exercise.  On  the  hunting- 
grounds  of  the  upper  Alps,  an  Austrian  sportsman  can 
assimilate  a  quantity  of  meat  which  the  kitchen  artists  of 
the  best  Vienna  restaurant  could  not  have  foisted  upon 
the  stomach  of  an  indolent  burgher.  Dysentery  medi- 
cines can  be  entirely  dispensed  with  if  one  can  get  the  pa- 
tient to  try  the  effect  of  Nature's  two  specifics — fasting 
and  pedestrian  exercise.  Combined  they  will  only  fail 
when  opiates  have  produced  an  inflammatory  condition 
of  the  bowels,  in  which  case  a  grape-  or  water-cure  must 
precede  the  more  radical  remedies.  The  languor  of 
dysentery  is  always  combined  with  a  fretful  restlessness, 
and  should  not  be  mistaken  for  the  exhaustion  that  calls 
for  repose  and  food :  the  patient  is  safe  if  we  can  fa- 
tigue him  into  actual  sleepiness,  or  anything  like  a  gen- 
uine appetite ;  when  the  digestive  organs  announce  the 
need  of  nourishment,  they  can  be  relied  upon  to  find 
ways  and  means  to  retain  it. 

Constipation. — A  slight  stringency  of  the  bowels 
should  never  be  interfered  with ;  in  summer-time  close 
stools  are  consistent  with  a  good  appetite  and  general 
bodily  vigor.  Aperient  medicines  provoke  a  morbid 
activity  of  the  bowels,  followed  by  a  costiveness  that 
differs  from  a  summer  constipation  as  insomnia  differs 
from  a  transient  sleeplessness.  In  England  and  the 
United  States  the  use  of  laxative  drugs  has  repeatedly 
become  epidemic,  and  in  its  consequences  a  true  national 


210  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

misfortune ;  *  and  a  sad  majority  of  otherwise  intelli- 
gent parents  are  still  afflicted  with  the  idea  that  children 
have  to  "  take  something  " — in  others  words,  that  their 
bowels  have  to  be  convulsed  with  poisons — for  every 
trifling  complaint.  Constipation  is  often  simply  a  tran- 
sient lassitude  of  the  system,  a  functional  tardiness 
caused  by  fatigue  and  perspiration,  and  very  apt  to  cure 
itself  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  days,  especially  at  a 
change  from  a  higher  to  a  lower  temperature.  After  the 
third  day  the  disorder  demands  a  change  of  regimen  : 
cold  ablutions,  lighter  bedclothes,  in  summer-time  re- 
moval of  the  bed  to  the  coolest  and  airiest  available  lo- 
cality, and  liberal  rations  of  the  most  digestible  food — 
bran-bread,  sweet  cold  milk,  stewed  prunes,  and  fresh 
fruit  in  any  desired  quantity ;  faute  de  mieux,  cold 
water  and  sugar,  oatmeal-gruel,  and  diluted  molasses. 
The  legumina,  in  all  their  combinations,  are  likewise 
very  efficient  bowel  regulators,  and  common  pea-soup 
is  a  remedial  equivalent  of  Du  Barry's  expensive  "  re- 
valenta  Arabica"  (lentil-powder).  For  real  dyspepia 
(rarely  a  chronic  disease  of  youngsters  in  their  teens), 
there  is  hardly  any  help  but  rough  out-door  exercise, 
daily  pedestrian  exercise  or  out-door  labor,  continued 
for  hours  in  all  kinds  of  weather.  The  Graham  starva- 
tion cure  might  bring  relief  in  the  course  of  time,  but, 
for  one  person  with  passive  heroism  enough  to  resist 
the  continual  cravings  of  an  abnormal  appetite,  hundreds 
can  muster  the  requisite  resolution  for  an  occasional 

*  "  If  the  bowels  become  constipated,  they  are  dosed  with  pills,  with 
black  draughts,  with  brimstone  and  treacle,  and  medicines  of  that  class, 
almost  ad  infinitum.  Opening  medicines,  by  constant  repetition,  lose 
their  effects,  and  therefore  require  to  be  made  stronger  and  stronger, 
until  at  length  the  strongest  will  scarcely  act  at  all ;  ...  the  patients 
become  dull  and  listless,  require  daily  doses  of  physic  until  they  almost 
live  on  medicine." — (H.  Chavasse,  "  Advice  to  a  Mother,"  p.  388.) 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  211 

active  effort,  which  will  gradually  but  perceptibly  re- 
store the  vigor  of  the  system.  Drugs  only  change  the 
form  of  the  disease  by  turning  a  confirmed  surfeit-habit 
into  a  still  more  obstinate  and  less  commutable  alcohol- 
habit  ;  the  vile  mixtures  sold  under  the  name  of  "  tonic  " 
bitters  have  never  benefited  anybody  but  their  proprie- 
tors and  the  rum-sellers,  to  whose  army  of  victims  the 
patent-medicine  dispensaries  serve  as  so  many  recruiting- 
offices. 

Active  exercise  is  also  the  only  remedy  for  those 
secret  vices  whose  causes  are  as  often  misunderstood  as 
their  consequences.  The  pathologists  who  ascribe  pre- 
cocious pmrience  to  the  effects  of  a  stimulating  diet 
seem  to  overlook  the  fact  that  the  most  continent  na- 
tions of  antiquity,  the  Scythians  and  ancient  Germans, 
were  as  nearly  exclusively  carnivorous  as  our  Indian 
hunting-tribes,  the  apathy  of  whose  sexual  instincts  has 
been  alleged  in  explanation  of  their  gradual  extinction.* 
For  the  same  reason  the  gauchos  of  the  tropical  pam- 
pas are  an  unprolific  race,  while  the  Russian  mujiks 
and  the  sluggish  boyars  of  the  Danubian  principalities 
are  as  salacious  as  the  inert  (though  f rugivorous)  natives 
of  Southern  Italy.  Independent  of  climate  and  diet, 
the  continence  or  incontinence  of  the  different  nations, 
or  different  classes  of  any  nation,  bears  an  unmistakable 
proportion  to  the  degree  of  their  indolence.  Lazy  cities 
and  small,  thickly  populated  islands  (Lesbos,  Paphos, 
Cythera,  Otaheite)  have  been  most  conspicuous  for  the 
absence  of  those  virtues  which  the  Grecian  allegory 
ascribed  to  the  goddess  of  the  chase.  The  menu  pre- 
scribed by  the  founders  of  the  monastic  orders  was 
rather  ultra-Grahamite  in  quality  and  quantity,  yet  nei- 

*  Ludwig,  "American  Aborigines,"  p.  128. 


212  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION". 

ther  barley-bread  nor  the  frequent  fasts  to  aid  the 
minutio  monachi  could  counteract  the  effects  of  defi- 
cient exercise ;  if  we  can  believe  the  publicists  of  the 
Reformation,  the  chronique  scandaleuse  of  Lesbos  and 
Capri  was  far  surpassed  in  the  record  of  some  mediasval 
convents — and  not  in  the  flagrant  latitude  of  Italy  alone 
(Robert  Burton's  "Anatomy  of  Melancholy,"  volume 
of  miscellanies,  pp.  449-451,  quotations,  etc.).  Nor 
can  we  mistake  the  significance  of  the  circumstance 
that  sexual  aberrations  in  the  years  of  immaturity  are 
almost  exclusively  the  vice  of  male  children,  whose  po- 
tential energies,  with  the  same  diet  and  the  same  gen- 
eral mode  of  life,  find  no  adequate  vent  in  an  amount 
of  active  exercise  nearly  sufficient  for  the  constitutional 
wants  of  the  other  sex.  Moral  lectures  are  sadly  in- 
effectual in  such  cases,  because,  as  Gotthold  Lessing 
remarks,  vicious  passions  pervert  the  constitution  of  the 
mind  as  effectually  as  they  subvert  that  of  the  body — 
"  the  evil  powers  blindfold  the  victims  of  their  altars." 
A  frugal  diet  may  subserve  the  work  of  reform,  but  the 
great  specific  is  competitive  gymnastics,  the  society  and 
example  of  merry,  manly,  and  adventurous  companions. 
Crank-work  gymnastics  won't  do;  enlist  the  pride  of 
the  young  Trimalchion,  watch  him  at  play,  find  out  his 
special  forte,  no  matter  what — running,  jumping,  or 
throwing  stones — and  organize  a  sodality  for  the  cultiva- 
tion of  that  particular  accomplishment.  Beguile  him 
into  heroic  efforts,  offer  prizes  and  champion-badges :  as 
soon  as  manful  exercises  become  a  pleasure,  unmanning 
indulgences  will  lose  their  attractions.  The  depressing 
after-effect  of  sensual  excesses,  the  dreary  reaction,  is  a 
chief  incentive  to  the  repetition  of  the  vicious  act,  and 
the  success  of  all  reformatory  measures  depends  at  first 
upon  the  possibility  of  relieving  this  depression  by 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  213 

healthful  diversion,  till,  in  the  course  of  time,  regained 
mental  and  bodily  vigor  will  help  the  remedial  tendency 
of  Nature  to  neutralize  the  morbid  inclination. 

"  Rickets "  is  a  sign  of  general  debility,  owing  to 
mal-nutrition  during  the  years  of  rapid  growth.  The 
best  physic  for  a  rickety  child  is  milk,  bran-bread,  and 
fruit ;  the  best  physician,  the  drill-master  of  the  Turner- 
hall.  Rickety  children  are  apt  to  be  precocious,  and 
till  their  backs  are  straightened  up  their  books  ought 
to  be  thrown  aside.  Knock-knees,  bow-legs,  "  chicken- 
breasts,"  and  round  shoulders  are  all  amenable  to  treat- 
ment, if  the  cure  be  begun  in  time — during  the  first 
three  years  of  the  teens,  of  all  ages  at  once  the  most 
plastic  and  the  most  retentive  of  deep  impressions. 

For  the  cure  of  young  topers,  smokers,  and  gluttons 
I  am  persuaded  that  punishments  are  only  of  tempora- 
ry avail,  and  homilies  of  no  use  whatever.  The  most 
glowing  eloquence  palls  before  the  suasion  of  a  vicious 
penchant.  Here,  too,  the  chances  of  saving  the  tempted 
depend  upon  the  possibility  of  silencing  the  tempter 
— by  outbidding  his  offer.  Provide  healthful  diver- 
sions ;  the  victims  of  the  poison-habit  yield  to  tempta- 
tion when  the  reaction  (following  upon  every  morbid  ex- 
citement) becomes  intolerable.  Relieve  the  strain  of 
that  reaction  by  diverting  sports ;  improvise  hunting 
expeditions  and  mountain-excursions  or  Olympic  games ; 
between  exciting  diversions  and  sound  sleep  the  toper 
will  forget  his  tipple,  and  every  day  thus  gained  will 
lessen  the  danger  of  a  relapse. 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  poison-habits  (the  opium- 
habit  as  well  as  "  alcoholism  ")  are  to  some  degree  he- 
reditary. The  children  of  confirmed  inebriates  should 
be  carefully  guarded,  not  only  against  objective  temp- 
tations, but  against  the  promptings  of  a  peculiar  dis- 


214  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

position  which  I  have  found  to  be  a  (periodical)  char- 
acteristic of  their  mental  constitution.  They  lack  that 
spontaneous  gayety  which  constitutes  the  almost  mis- 
fortune-proof happiness  of  normal  children,  and,  with- 
out being  positively  peevish  or  melancholy,  their  spirits 
seem  to  be  clouded  by  an  apathy  which  yields  only  to 
strong  external  excitants.  But  healthful  amusements 
and  healthy  food  rarely  fail  to  restore  thje  tone  of  the 
mind,  and,  even  before  the  age  of  puberty,  the  mani- 
festations of  a  more  buoyant  temper  will  prove  that  the 
patient  has  outgrown  the  hereditary  hebetude,  and  with 
it  the  need  of  artificial  stimulation. 

Chlorosis,  or  green-sickness,  is  a  malignant  form  of 
that  dyspeptic  pallor  and  languor  which  one  half  of  our 
city  girls  owe  to  their  sedentary  occupations  in  ill-ven- 
tilated rooms.  The  complaint  is  almost  unknown  in 
rural  districts,  and  the  best  cure  is  a  mountain-excur- 
sion, afoot  or  on  horseback ;  the  next  best  a  course  of 
"  calisthenics,"  a  plentiful  and  varying  vegetable  diet, 
fun,  frequent  baths,  and  plenty  of  sleep.  "  Tonic " 
drugs  are  sure  to  aggravate  the  evil.  It  is  only  too 
well  known  that  a  fit  of  nervous  depression  can  be 
momentarily  relieved  by  a  cup  of  strong  green  tea. 
The  stimulus  goads  the  weary  system  into  a  spasm  of 
morbid  activity :  the  vital  strength,  sorely  needed  for 
a  reconstructive  process  (one  of  whose  phases  was  the 
nervous  depression),  has  now  to  be  used  to  repel  a  per- 
nicious intruder ;  and  this  convulsion  of  the  organism, 
in  its  effort  to  rid  itself  of  the  narcotic  poison,  is  mis- 
taken for  a  sign  of  returning  vigor — the  patient  "  feels 
so  much  better."  But,  as  soon  as  the  irritant  has  been 
eliminated,  the  vital  energy — diminished  now  by  the 
expulsive  effort — has  to  resume  the  work  of  recon- 
struction under  less  favorable  circumstances;  the  pa- 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  215 

tient  now  "  feels  so  much  worse  " — by  just  as  much 
as  the  reaction  following  upon  the  morbid  excitement 
has  since  increased  the  nervous  depression.  In  the 
same  way  precisely  a  "  tonic  "  medicine  operates  upon 
the  exhausted  organism,  and  in  the  same  way  its  effect 
— a  morbid  and  transient  stimulation — is  mistaken  for 
a  permanent  invigoration. 

Pulmonary  consumption,  in  its  early  stages,  is  per- 
haps the  most  curable  of  all  chronic  diseases.  The 
records  of  the  dissecting-room  prove  that  in  numerous 
cases  lungs,  wasted  to  one  half  of  their  normal  size, 
have  been  healed,  and,  after  a  perfect  cicatrization  of 
the  tuberculous  ulcers,  have  for  years  performed  all 
the  essential  functions  of  the  sound  organ.  Still,  the 
actual  waste  of  tissue  is  never  perfectly  repaired,  and 
fragmentary  lungs,  supplying  the  undiminished  wants 
of  the  whole  organism,  must  necessarily  do  double 
work,  and  will  be  less  able  to  respond  to  the  demands 
of  an  abnormal  exigency.  But  the  lungs  of  a  young 
child  of  consumptive  parents  are  sound,  though  very 
sensitive,  and,  if  the  climacteric  of  the  first  teens  has 
been  passed  in  safety,  or  without  too  serious  damage, 
the  problem  becomes  reduced  to  the  work  of  preserva- 
tion and  invigoration  :  the  all  but  intact  lungs  of  the 
healthy  child  can  be  more  perfectly  redeemed  than  the 
rudimentary  organs  of  the  far-gone  consumptive ;  the 
phthisical  taint  can  be  more  entirely  eliminated  and 
the  respiratory  apparatus  strengthened  to  the  degree 
of  becoming  the  most  vigorous  part  of  the  organism. 
The  poet  Goethe,  afflicted  in  his  childhood  with  spit- 
ting of  blood  and  other  hectic  symptoms,  thus  com- 
pletely redeemed  himself  by  a  judicious  system  of  self- 
culture.  Chateaubriand,  a  child  of  consumptive  par- 
ents, steeled  his  constitution  by  traveling  and  fasting, 


216  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

and  reached  his  eightieth  year.  By  a  relapse  into  im- 
prudent habits,  the  latent  spark,  which  under  such 
circumstances  seems  to  defy  the  eliminative  efforts  of 
half  a  century,  may  at  any  time  be  fanned  into  life- 
consuming  flames,  but  in  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred 
cases  it  will  be  found  that  the  first  improvement  fol- 
lowed upon  a  change  from  a  sedentary  to  an  out-door 
and  active  mode  of  life.  Impure  air  is  the  original 
cause  of  pulmonary  consumption  ("pulmonary  scrof- 
ula," as  Dr.  Haller  used  to  call  it),  and  out-door  life 
the  only  radical  cure.  The  first  symptoms  of  consump- 
tion are  not  easy  to  distinguish  from  those  transient 
affections  of  the  upper  air-passages  which  are  undoubt- 
edly due  to  long  confinement  in  a  vitiated  atmosphere : 
hoarseness,  and  a  dry,  rasping  cough,  rapid  pulse,  and 
general  lassitude.  Spitting  of  blood  and  pains  in  the 
chest  are  more  characteristic  symptoms,  but  the  crucial 
test  is  the  degree  in  which  the  respiratory  functions  are 
accelerated  by  any  unusual  effort.  A  common  catarrh 
will  not  prevent  a  man  from  running  up-stairs  or  walk- 
ing up-hill  for  minutes  together,  without  anything  like 
visible  distress ;  subjected  to  the  same  test,  a  person 
whose  lungs  are  studded  with  tubercles  will  pant  like 
a  swimmer  after  a  long  dive,  and  his  pulse  will  rise 
from  an  average  of  65  to  110  and  even  140  beats  per 
minute.  Combined  with  a  hectic  flush  of  the  face, 
night-sweats,  or  general  emaciation,  shortness  of  breath 
leaves  no  doubt  that  the  person  thus  affected  is  in  the 
first  stage  of  pulmonary  consumption.  If  the  patient 
were  my  son,  I  should  remove  the  windows  of  his  bed- 
room, and  make  him  pass  his  days  in  the  open  air — as 
a  cow-boy  or  berry-gatherer,  if  he  could  do  no  better. 
In  case  the  disease  had  reached  its  deliquiuin  period, 
the  stage  of  violent  bowel-complaints,  dropsical  swell- 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  217 

ings,  and  utter  prostration,  it  would  be  better  to  let  the 
sufferer  die  in  peace,  but,  as  long  as  he  were  able  to  di- 
gest a  frugal  meal  and  walk  two  miles  on  level  ground, 
I  should  begin  the  out-door  cure  at  any  time  of  the 
year,  and  stake  my  own  life  on  the  result.  I  should 
provide  him  with  clothing  enough  to  defy  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  the  seasons,  and  keep  him  out-doors  in  all 
kinds  of  weather — walking,  riding,  or  sitting  ;  he  would 
be  safe  :  the  fresh  air  would  prevent  \\iQprogress  of  the 
disease.  But  improve  he  could  not  without  exercise. 
Increased  exercise  is  the  price  of  increased  vigor.  Run- 
ning and  walking  steel  the  leg-sinews.  In  order  to 
strengthen  his  wrist-joints  a  man  must  handle  heavy 
weights.  Almost  any  bodily  exercise — but  especially 
swinging,  wood-chopping,  carrying  weights,  and  walk- 
ing up-hill — increases  the  action  of  the  lungs,  and  thus 
gradually  their  functional  vigor.  Gymnastics  that  ex- 
pand the  chest  facilitate  the  action  of  the  respiratory 
organs,  and  have  the  collateral  advantage  of  strengthen- 
ing the  sinews,  and  invigorating  the  system  in  general, 
by  accelerating  every  function  of  the  vital  process.  The 
exponents  of  the  movement-cure  give  a  long  list  of  ath- 
letic evolutions,  warranted  to  widen  out  the  chest  as 
infallibly  as  French-horn  practice  expands  the  cheeks. 
But  the  trouble  with  such  machine-exercises  is  that  they 
are  almost  sure  to  be  discontinued  as  soon  as  they  have 
relieved  a  momentary  distress,  and,  as  Dr.  Pitcher  re- 
marks in  his  "Memoirs  of  the  Osage  Indians,"  the 
symptoms  of  consumption  (caused  by  smoking  and  con- 
finement in  winter  quarters)  disappear  during  their  an- 
nual buffalo-hunt,  but  reappear  upon  their  return  to  the 
indolent  life  of  the  wigwam.  The  problem  is  to  make 
out-door  exercise  pleasant  enough  to  be  permanently 
preferable  to  the  far  niente  whose  sweets  seem  espe- 

10 


218  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

cially  tempting  to  consumptives.  This  purpose  ac- 
complished, the  steady  progress  of  convalescence  is 
generally  insured,  for  the  differences  of  climate,  lati- 
tude, and  altitude,  of  age  and  previous  habits,  almost 
disappear  before  the  advantages  of  an  habitual  out-door 
life  over  the  healthiest  in-door  occupations. 

A  tubercular  diathesis  inherited  from  both  parents 
need  not  be  considered  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  a 
successful  issue  of  the  cure.  The  family  of  my  old  col- 
league, Dr.  G ,  of  JSTamur,  adopted  a  young  relative 

who  had  lost  his  parents  and  his  only  brother  by  febrile 
consumption,  and  was  supposed  to  be  in  an  advanced 
stage  of  the  same  disease.  The  Antwerp  doctors  had 
given  him  up,  his  complaint  having  reached  the  stage 
of  night-sweats  and  hectic  chills,  and,  though  by  no 
means  resigned  to  the  verdict  of  the  medical  tribunal, 
he  had  an  unfortunate  aversion  to  anything  like  rough 
physical  exercise.  But  his  uncle,  having  from  personal 
experience  a  supreme  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  the  open- 
air  cure,  set  about  to  study  the  character  of  the  young- 
ster, and  finally  hit  upon  a  plan  which  resulted  in  the 
proudest  triumph  of  his  professional  career.  Pierre  was 
neither  a  sportsman  nor  much  of  an  amateur  naturalist, 
but  he  had  a  fair  share  of  what  our  phrenologists  call 
"  constructiveness " — could  whittle  out  ingenious  toys 
and  make  useful  garden-chairs  from  cudgels  and  scraps 
of  old  iron.  That  proved  a  sufficient  base  of  operations. 
The  doctor  had  no  farm  of  his  own,  and  the  only  real 
estate  in  the  market  was  a  lot  of  poor  old  pastures  on  a 
sparsely  wooded  slope  of  the  Ardennes.  Of  this  past- 
ure-land he  bought  some  ten  or  twelve  acres,  including 
a  hill-top  with  a  few  shade-trees  and  a  fine  view  toward 
the  valley  of  the  Sambre.  At  the  first  opportunity  one 
of  Pierre's  garden-chairs  was  sent  up  to  the  lookout 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION  219 

point,  but  rain  and  rough  usage  soon  reduced  it  to 
its  component  elements — scrap-iron  and  loose  cudgels. 
Pierre  volunteered  to  repair  it,  and  was  supplied  with 
such  a  variety  of  material  and  tools  that  he  made  two 
more  chairs,  and  while  he  was  about  it  also  a  rustic 
round-table  with  a  center-hole,  corresponding  to  the 
diameter  of  one  of  the  shade-trees.  The  hill  was  only 
two  miles  from  town,  and  soon  became  a  favorite  even- 
ing resort  of  the  G family  ;  but  the  road  was  rather 

steep,  and  Mrs.  G appealed  to  the  ingenuity  of  her 

constructive  nephew :  could  he  not  try  and  make  a  wind- 
ing trail  by  knocking  some  of  the  rocks  and  bushes  out 
of  the  way?  Pierre  tried,  and  his  success,  the  uncle 
declared,  proved  him  an  intuitive  engineer,  the  peer  of 
Haussmann  and  Brunei.  That  new  road  had  so  in- 
creased the  value  of  the  old  pasture  that  it  would  be 
worth  while  to  put  up  a  pavilion  and  make  it  a  regular 
hill-top  resort.  The  only  drawback  upon  the  advantage 
of  its  situation  was  the  want  of  good  drinking-water; 
but  there  was  a  sort  of  a  spring  in  an  adjoining  pasture 
on  the  opposite  slope  of  the  ridge :  would  Pierre  make 
an  estimate  of  the  number  of  bricks  requisite  to  wall  it 
up  and  keep  the  cattle  from  muddling  it  ?  The  requi- 
sition proved  an  underestimate,  but  Pierre  made  up  the 
deficiency  by  collecting  a  lot  of  passably  square  stones. 
The  water  now  became  drinkable,  and  somehow  the 
rumor  got  abroad  that  Pierre  had  discovered  the  spring, 
whereupon  his  uncle's  neighbor  urged  him  to  exercise 
his  talent  for  the  benefit  of  his  valley-meadow,  in  all  but 
the  want  of  water  the  best  pasture  in  the  parish.  Pierre 
selected  a  spot  where  a  lot  of  day-laborers  were  Bet 
to  work  and  actually  struck  water — by  digging  deep 
enough.  The  gratitude  of  the  farmer  was  almost  too 
demonstrative  for  the  modest  lad,  who,  however,  agreed 


220  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

with  his  uncle  that  a  talent  of  that  sort  might  make  its 
possessor  a  public  benefactor,  and  ought  to  be  cultivated. 
Would  Pierre  undertake  to  locate  a  well  on  his  uncle's 
hill-pasture,  a  little  nearer  to  the  lookout  point  ?  The 
brick-spring  was  too  far  down,  and  it  would  be  so  con- 
venient to  have  water  on  one's  own  premises !  Judging 
from  analogies,  the  young  hydrologist  fixed  upon  a  spot 
at  the  junction  of  two  ravines,  but  too  near  the  upper 
boundary  of  arboreal  vegetation,  and,  after  digging  down 
to  a  stratum  of  dry  sand-stone  detritus,  the  workmen 
gave  up  the  job  in  disgust.  But  Pierre  himself  would 
not  yield  his  point,  and  offered  to  dig  the  well  alone  if 
they  would  give  him  time,  and  a  boy  to  turn  the  wind- 
lass of  the  sand-bucket.  His  wish  was  granted,  and,  be- 
fore he  had  been  a  week  at  work,  his  asthma  had  left 
him,  his  digestion  improved,  and  his  appetite  became 
ravenous.  The  well-project  had  finally  to  be  relin- 
quished, but  his  uncle  consoled  him  by  purchasing  the 
adjoining  lot  and  letting  him  make  a  winding  road  from 
the  brick-spring  to  the  hill-top.  The  road  was  built, 
but  Pierre  indorsed  the  opinion  of  a  professional  engi- 
neer that  the  well-hole,  too,  would  be  full  of  water  if 
the  woods  of  the  upper  ridge  had  not  been  so  ruthlessly 
destroyed,  and  that  the  replanting  of  forest-trees  along 
the  line  of  the  subterranean  water-courses  would  not 
only  replenish  the  springs  but  redeem  the  arid  pastures 
of  the  foot-hills.  The  doctor  controverted  that  point, 
but — just  for  the  sake  of  experiment — procured  a  hun- 
dred beech-tree  saplings,  which  Pierre  planted  and 
watered  with  untiring  assiduity.  Some  sixty  per  cent 
of  the  trees  took  root,  to  the  unending  astonishment  of 
the  uncle,  who  now  declared  that  his  confidence  in  the 
fertility  of  the  ridge-land  had  increased  to  a  degree 
which  encouraged  him  to  try  his  luck  with  orchard- 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  221 

trees.  They  procured  a  lot  of  young  apple,  almond, 
and  apricot  trees,  about  two  hundred  of  each,  and 
planted  them  along  the  line  of  the  suppositive  water- 
courses. Pierre  superintended  the  work,  and  was  kept 
so  busy  for  the  next  eighteen  months  that  he  had  no 
time  to  be  sick  for  a  single  day.  The  boy  that  was 
given  up  by  the  Antwerp  doctors  is  now  a  well-to-do 
horticulturist,  able  to  climb  without  a  stop  the  steepest 
ridge  in  the  Ardennes  and  to  fell  a  forty-years  oak-tree 
in  twenty  minutes ! 

In  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  I  have  mentioned 
two  forms  of  disease  which,  thus  far,  have  not  proved 
amenable  to  the  hygienic  (non-medicinal)  mode  of  treat- 
ment, though  it  has  already  been  ascertained  that  a 
mild  vegetable  demulcent — sarsaparilla,  for  instance- 
is  as  efficacious  in  those  cases  as  the  virulent  mercurials 
of  the  old  school.  Antidotes  and  certain  anodynes  will, 
perhaps,  also  hold  their  own  till  we  find  a  way  of  pro- 
ducing their  effects  by  mechanical  means.  But,  with 
these  few  exceptions,  I  will  venture  the  prediction  that, 
before  the  middle  of  the  twentieth  century,  the  internal 
use  of  drugs  will 'be  discarded  by  all  intelligent  phy- 
sicians. 

"  If  we  reflect  upon  the  obstinate  health  of  animals 
and  savages,"  says  Dr.  Schrodt,  "  upon  the  rapidity  of 
their  recovery  from  injuries  that  defy  all  the  mixtures 
of  materia  medica ;  also  upon  the  fact  that  the  homoeop- 
athists  cure  their  patients  with  milk-sugar  and  mummery, 
the  prayer-Christians  with  mummery  without  milk- 
sugar,  and  my  followers  with  a  milk-diet  without  sugar 
or  mummery — the  conclusion  forces  itself  upon  us  that 
the  entire  system  of  therapeutics  is  founded  upon  an 
erroneous  view  of  disease." 

And,  moreover,  I  believe  that  the  chief  error  can  be 


222  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

accounted  for :  it  is  founded  upon  our  erroneous  view 
of  the  cause  and  cure  of  evil  in  general.  Translated 
into  plain  speech,  the  foundation-principle  of  our  system 
of  ethics  is  this :  that  all  natural  things,  especially  our 
natural  instincts,  are  essentially  evil,  and  that  salvation 
depends  upon  mysterious,  anti-natural,  and  even  super- 
natural remedies.  This  bottom-error  has  long  biased 
all  our  physical  and  metaphysical  theories.  The  use  of 
our  reasoning  powers  is  naturally  as  agreeable  as  the 
exercise  of  any  other  normal  function :  the  anti-natural- 
ists declared  war  against  free  inquiry,  assured  us  that 
the  study  of  logic  and  natural  science  is  highly  dangerous, 
and  that  the  seeker  after  truth  must  content  himself 
with  the  light  of  ghostly  revelations.  We  have  since 
ascertained  that  the  ghosts  are  grossly  ignorant  of  all 
terrestrial  concernments,  and  that  their  reports  on  the 
supramundane  state  of  affairs  are,  to  say  the  least,  sus- 
piciously conflicting. 

In  all  but  the  vilest  creatures  the  love  of  freedom  is 
as  powerful  as  the  instinct  of  self-preservation ;  the 
anti-naturalists  inculcated  the  dogma  of  implicit  sub- 
mission to  secular  and  spiritual  authorities.  The  experi- 
ment was  tried  on  the  grandest  scale,  and  the  result  has 
demonstrated  that  blind  faith  leads  to  idiocy,  and  that 
absolute  monarchs  must  be  absolutely  abolished. 

The  testimony  of  our  noses  justifies  the  opinion 
that  fresh  air  is  preferable  to  prison-smells ;  the  anti- 
naturalists  informed  us  that  at  various  seasons  of  the 
year,  and  every  night,  the  out-door  atmosphere  becomes 
mortiferous,  and  that  sleepers  and  invalids  ought  to  be 
confined  in  air-tight  apartments.  We  believed,  till  we 
found  that  the  most  implicit  believers  got  rotten  with 
scrofula. 

Animals  seem  to  live  and  thrive  on  the  principle 


REMEDIAL  EDUCATION.  223 

that  palatable  food  recommends  jtself  to  the  stomach, 
and  that  repulsive  things  ought  to  be  avoided.  The 
anti-naturalists  reversed  the  maxim,  and  assured  us  that 
sweetmeats,  uncooked  vegetables,  cold  water,  drunk 
when  it  tastes  best — i.  e.,  on  a  warm  day — raw  fruit, 
etc.,  are  the  causes  of  countless  diseases,  and  that  the 
execrable  taste  of  a  drug  is  not  the  least  argument 
against  its  salubriousness.  During  the  middle  ages 
parents  used  to  dose  their  children  with  brimstone  and 
calomel,  "  to  purify  their  blood,"  and,  for  the  same 
purpose,  the  most  nauseous  mineral  springs  of  every 
country  are  still  pumped  and  bottled  for  the  benefit  of 
invalids.  There  is  not  a  poison  known  to  chemistry  or 
botany  but  has  been,  and  is  still,  daily  prescribed  as  a 
health-giving  substance,  and,  in  the  form  of  pills,  drops, 
or  powders,  foisted  upon  a  host  of  help-seeking  invalids. 
But,  since  the  revival  of  free  inquiry,  we  have  cor.i- 
pared  the  statements  of  ancient  historians  and  modern 
travelers,  and  it  appears  that  the  healthiest  nations  on 
earth  have  preserved  their  health  on  the  principle  that 
guides  our  dumb  fellow-creatures,  and  would  guide  our 
children  if  they  were  permitted  to  follow  their  inclina- 
tions. An  overwhelming  testimony  of  facts  has  proved 
that  the  diseases  of  the  human  race  can  be  cured  easier 
without  poison-drugs — easier  in  the  very  degree  that 
would  suggest  the  suspicion  that  every  ounce  of  poison 
ever  swallowed  for  remedial  purposes  has  increased  the 
weight  of  human  misery.*  And  that  same  suspicion  is 

*  "  It  is  unnecessary  for  my  present  purpose  to  give  a  particular  ac- 
count of  the  results  of  homoeopathy ;  .  .  .  what  I  now  claim  with  respect 
to  it  is,  that  a  wise  and  beneficent  Providence  is  using  it  to  expose  and 
break  up  a  deep  delusion.  In  the  results  of  homoeopathic  practi< 
have  evidence  in  amount,  and  of  a  character  sufficient,  most  incontcstaMy 
to  establish  the  fact  that  disease  is  a  restorative  operation,  or  rcnovatin;.' 


224  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

forced  upon  us  by  very  cogent  a  priori  reasons.  If  the 
testimony  of  our  senses  helps  us  to  select  our  proper 
food,  and  warns  us  against  injurious  substances,  have 
we  any  reason  to  suppose  that  such  salutary  intuitions 
forsake  us  at  the  time  of  the  greatest  need — in  the  hour 
of  our  struggle  with  a  life-endangering  disease  ?  Shall 
we  believe  that  at  such  times  our  sense  of  taste  warns 
us  against  salubrious  substances  ?  And  does  it  not  ur- 
gently warn  us  against  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred 
"  medicines  "  ?  Shall  the  sick  believe  that  an  all-wise 
Creator  has  staked  the  chances  of  their  recovery  upon 
the  accident  of  their  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Quack's 
Quinine  Bitters  or  Puff  &  Co.'s  Purgative  Pills  ?  Yet, 
is  it  possible  to  mistake  the  analogy  between  the  reme- 
dial theories  of  our  nostrum-mongers  and  the  alleged 
moral  "  plan  of  salvation  "  ?  Is  not  the  key-note  of  the 
Semitic  dogma  mistrust  of  our  natural  instincts  and  re- 
liance upon  abnormal  remedies — mummeries,  mysteries, 
and  miracles? 

Poison-mongers,  physical  or  spiritual,  will  cease  to 
be  in  request  whenever  their  customers  begin  to  suspect 
that  this  world  of  ours  is  governed  by  laws,  and  not  by 
special  acts  of  intervention ;  that  sickness  can  be  cured 
only  by  conformity  to  those  laws,  and  not  by  drugs  and 

process,  and  that  medicine  has  deceived  us.  The  evidence  is  full  and 
complete.  It  does  not  consist  merely  of  a  few  isolated  cases,  whose  re- 
covery might  be  attributed  to  fortuitous  circumstances,  but  it  is  a  chain 
of  testimony  fortified  by  every  possible  circumstance.  .  .  .  All  kinds 
and  grades  of  disease  have  passed  under  the  ordeal,  and  all  classes  and 
characters  of  persons  have  been  concerned  in  the  experiment  as  patients 
or  witnesses  ;  .  .  .  while  the  process  of  infinitesimally  attenuating  the  drugs 
used  was  carried  to  such  a  ridiculous  extent  that  no  one  will,  on  sober  reflec- 
tion^ attribute  any  portion  of  the  cure  to  the  medicine.  I  claim,  then,  that 
homeopathy  may  be  regarded  as  a  providential  sealing  of  the  fate  of  old 
medical  views  and  practice." — (Isaac  Jennings,  M.  D.,  "  Medical  Reform," 
p.  247.) 


REMEDIAL   EDUCATION.  225 

prayers — i.  e.,  anti-natural  and  supernatural  remedies. 
To  the  children  of  Nature  all  good  things  are  attractive, 
all  evil  repulsive :  the  laws  of  God  proclaim  and  avenge 
themselves;  the  Author  of  this  logically-ordered  uni- 
verse can  never  have  intended  that  our  salvation  should 
depend  upon  the  accident  of  our  acquaintance  with  the 
dogmas  of  an  isolated  act  of  revelation ;  and,  as  surely 
as  the  germ  of  the  hidden  seed-corn  finds  its  way 
through  night  to  light,  the  unaided  instincts  of  the  low- 
liest islander  would  guide  him  safely  on  the  path  of 
moral  and  physical  welfare. 

These  words  would  be  truisms  if  Truth  had  not  been 
a  contraband  for  the  last  eighteen  hundred  years :  To 
nine  tenths  of  our  Christian  contemporaries  God's  most 
authentic  revelation  is  still  a  sealed  book ;  and,  before 
any  reformer  can  hope  to  turn  this  chaos  of  vice,  su- 
perstition, and  quackery,  into  anything  like  a  cosmos,  he 
must  convince  his  fellow-men  that  the  study  of  Nature 
has  to  supersede  the  worship  of  miracles,  even  though 
that  conviction  should  imply  that  the  fundamental  dog- 
mas of  our  priest-religion  are  perniciously  false. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS. 

"Dangers  we  can  not  avoid  we  must  learn  to  defy." — LESSING. 

CREATURES  in  a  state  of  nature  can  almost  dispense 
with  sanitary  precautions  ;  Providence  has  secured  their 
safety  in  that  respect.  Animals  are  born  with  the  in- 
stinct that  enables  them  to  distinguish  wholesome  from 
injurious  plants.  In  the  wilderness,  where  the  neigh- 
borhood of  man  does  not  tempt  them  to  brave  the  win- 
ter of  the  higher  latitudes,  most  birds  emigrate  in  time 
to  avoid  its  rigors ;  those  that  stay  can  rely  on  their 
feather-coats ;  natural  selection  has  adapted  their  utmost 
power  of  endurance  to  the  possible  extremes  of  the  at- 
mospheric vicissitudes.  The  sexual  instinct  of  wild  ani- 
mals is  limited  to  certain  seasons  and  months  that  pre- 
clude the  possibility  of  their  young  being  born  at  any 
but  the  most  favorable  time  of  the  year.  From  birth 
to  death  the  children  of  Nature  can  trust  themselves  to 
the  guidance  of  their  hereditary  inclinations;  all  the 
contingencies  of  their  simple  lives  have  been  amply 
provided  for. 

These  provisions  do  not  apply  exclusively  to  a  state 
of  affairs  which  the  agency  of  man  has  in  so  many  ways 
modified  or  even  reversed ;  still,  it  would  seem  as  if 
Nature  had  failed  to  make  adequate  allowance  for  the 
possibility  of  certain  perils  incident  to  our  artificial 
mode  of  life.  This  fact  is  perhaps  most  strikingly  il- 


HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS.  227 

lustrated  by  the  treacherous  non-repulsiveness  of  cer- 
tain mineral  poisons.  The  offensive  taste  of  poisonous 
plants  seems  to  be  proportioned  to  the  degree  of  their 
noxiousness ;  hemlock,  strychnine,  and  opium  are  for- 
biddingly nauseous,  even  in  the  smallest  quantities.  A 
drop  of  prussic  acid  fills  a  whole  room  with  its  bitter 
aroma.  But  arsenious  acid  is  tasteless  and  odorless,  and 
so  unsuspicious  to  the  most  wary  animals  that  its  name 
has  become  a  synonym  of  ratsbane.  The  reason  is  ap- 
parently this :  that  Providence  (or  "  natural  selection  ") 
has  endowed  animals  with  a  protective  antipathy  against 
all  poisons  they  could  possibly  mistake  for  comestibles, 
but  not  against  such  out-of-the-way  things  as  arsenic  or 
sugar  of  lead,  nor  against  the  mixtures  by  which  the 
art  of  man  has  disguised  the  taste  of  naturally  un- 
palatable substances.  Coffee,  without  sugar  and  milk, 
"straight  and  strong,"  as  the  Turks  drink  it,  would 
hardly  tempt  a  Cliristian  school-boy ;  mixed,  it  can  be 
made  seductive  enough  to  deceive  even  the  ex-officio 
opponents  of  the  stimulant-habit.  In  such  commixtures 
as  milk-punch,  beer-soup,  "  Scutari  sherbet,"  the  taste — 
though  not  the  effect — of  alcohol  almost  disappears ; 
the  Algeria  trappers  catch  monkeys  with  a  melange  of 
rum  and  manna-sirup.  A  famous  cook  of  the  "  Freres 
Provenceaux "  used  to  boast  his  ability  of  compound- 
ing delightful  ragouts  from  meat  in  any  state  of  decom- 
position. Early  habits  and  the  influence  of  evil  exam- 
ples also  tend  to  corrupt  the  integrity  of  that  physical 
conscience  whose  arbitrations  form  the  health-code  of 
our  dumb  fellow-creatures.  In  large  cities  the  panders 
of  vice  vie  in  the  art  of  making  their  poisons  attractive, 
and,  where  such  dangers  can  not  be  avoided,  it  is  al- 
ways the  safest  plan  to  meet  and  master  them  in  time. 
Early  impressions  are  very  enduring,  and  can  make 


228  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

useful  habits  as  well  as  evil  ones  a  sort  of  second  nat- 
ure. In  order  to  forestall  the  chief  danger  of  in-door 
life,  make  your  children  love-sick  after  fresh  air ;  make 
them  associate  the  idea  of  fusty  rooms  with  prison-life, 
punishment,  and  sickness.  Open  a  window  whenever 
they  complain  of  headache  or  nausea ;  promise  them  a 
woodland  excursion  as  a  reward  of  exceptionally  good 
behavior.  Save  your  best  sweetmeats  for  out-door  fes- 
tivals. By  the  witchery  of  associated  ideas  a  boy  can 
come  to  regard  the  lonely  shade-tree  as  a  primary  requi- 
site to  the  enjoyment  of  a  good  story-book.  "  Or,  mes 
pensees  ne  voulent  jamais  oiler  gu'a/oec  mes  jambes" 
says  Rousseau  ("  Only  the  movement  of  my  feet 
seems  to  set  my  brains  a-going  "),  and  it  is  just  as  easy 
to  think,  debate,  rehearse,  etc.,  walking  as  sitting  ;  the 
peripatetic  philosophers  derived  their  name  from  their 
pedestrian  proclivities,  and  the  Stoic  sect  from  their 
master's  predilection  for  an  open  porch.  Children  who 
have  been  brought  up  in  hygienic  homes  not  rarely 
"  feel  as  if  they  were  going  to  be  choked  "  in  unventi- 
lated  rooms,  and  I  would  take  good  care  not  to  cure 
them  of  such  salutary  idiosyncrasies. 

Every  observant  teacher  must  have  noticed  the  in- 
nate hardiness  of  young  boys,  their  unaffected  indiffer- 
ence to  wind  and  weather.  They  seem  to  take  a  de- 
light in  braving  the  extremes  of  temperature,  and,  by 
simply  indulging  this  penchant  of  theirs,  children  can 
be  made  weather-proof  to  an  almost  unlimited  degree ; 
and  in  nothing  else  can  they  be  more  safely  trusted  to 
the  guidance  of  their  protective  instincts.  Don't  be 
afraid  that  an  active  boy  will  hurt  himself  by  voluntary 
exposure,  unless  his  chances  for  out-door  play  are  so 
rare  as  to  tempt  him  to  abuse  the  first  opportunity. 
Weather-proof  people  are  almost  sickness -proof;  a 


HYGIEXIC  PRECAUTIONS.  229 

merry  hunting-excursion  to  the  snow-clad  highlands 
will  rarely  fail  to  counteract  the  consequences  of  re- 
peated surfeits  ;  even  girls  who  have  learned  to  brave 
the  winter  storms  of  our  Northwestern  prairies  will 
afterward  laugh  at "  draughts  "  and  "  raw  March  winds." 
Winter  is  the  season  of  lung-affections,  the  larger  part 
of  them  induced  by  long  confinement  in  a  vitiated  at- 
mosphere ;  the  part  caused  by  light  winter  clothes  is 
smaller  than  most  people  imagine.  I  have  weathered 
a  good  many  winters  without  fur  caps  and  woolen 
shawls,  and  I  ascribe  my  immunity  to  the  circumstance 
that  my  guardian  made  it  a  rule  never  to  force  us  to 
wear  such  things.  The  Moslems  rarely  eat  before  they 
have  washed  their  hands,  and  a  rather  unscrupulous 
frontier  Turk  assured  me  that  in  his  case  the  practice 
had  nothing  to  do  with  superstition  ;  it  had  become  a 
physiological  habit,  whose  omission,  he  had  found, 
would  produce  a  fit  of  very  realistic  nausea.  In  the 
same  way  more  comprehensive  ablutions  may  become 
a  physiological  necessity :  there  are  people  who  owe 
their  sound  sleep  and  other  sound  things  to  their  ina- 
bility to  go  to  bed  without  a  sponge-bath.  The  habit 
can  be  formed  in  one  summer. 

The  dietetic  instincts  of  a  rationally  educated  per- 
son should  obviate  the  necessity  of  special  precautions, 
but  in  large  cities,  where  temptations  walk  in  disguise, 
the  welfare  of  inexperienced  children  may  require  ad- 
ditional safeguards.  In  the  first  chapter  of  this  series 
I  have  enumerated  the  chief  arguments  of  the  vege- 
tarian school.  Among  the  incidental  advantages  of  their 
system  it  might  be  mentioned  that  a  purely  vegetable 
diet  is  the  most  effectual  precaution  against  a  danger 
which  only  in  one  of  its  exceptional  forms  was  lately 
brought  home  to  us  by  the  trichina  panic.  Flesh-eat- 


230  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

ers  always  run  a  risk  of  inoculating  themselves  with 
the  germs  of  the  various  diseases  which  both  beef-  and 
man-flesh  is  heir  to,  consumption  especially,  and  several 
disorders  arising  from  the  corruption  of  the  humors,  by 
the  use  of  decayed  or  fermented  food.  Sausage-makers, 
like  trance-mediums,  never  divulge  their  trade-secrets, 
but  it  is  a  suggestive  fact  that,  in  the  Anglo-German 
cities  of  this  continent,  the  scrofulous  and  decrepit  old 
females  of  the  bovine  race  are  known  by  the  name 
of  Bologna  cows.  Abstinence  from  Wurst,  boarding- 
house  hash,  and  mince-pies,  may  diminish  the  danger, 
but  abstinence  from  all  animal  food  is  the  safer  plan 
and  the  easier  one.  If  children  were  restricted  to  a 
vegetable  or  semi-animal  diet  (milk,  eggs,  etc.),  I  doubt 
if  many  of  them  would  afterward  choose  to  overcome 
that  instinctive  repugnance  to  flesh-food  expressed  in 
the  original  meaning  of  the  word  frugality.  The  Ro- 
mans of  the  Cincinnatian  era,  though  entirely  free  from 
Buddhistic  scruples,  seem  to  have  eschewed  animal  food 
for  sanitary  reasons.  Children  with  a  phthisical  taint 
are  certainly  better  off  without  it.  Give  them  eggs 
and  all  the  available  vegetable  fat  they  can  digest,  but 
no  flesh  nor  milk  of  anyways  doubtful  origin.  Two 
or  three  families  of  moderate  means  might  rent  a  bit 

o 

of  pasture-land,  and  divide  the  milk  of  a  healthy  coun- 
try cow.  The  sanitary  condition  of  a  single  animal 
could  be  ascertained  by  any  competent  farrier,  but  the 
control  of  a  wholesale  meat-market  will  always  be  more 
or  less  perfunctory. 

Prindpiis  obsta  is  probably  the  wisest  maxim  ever 
expressed  in  two  words,  and  I  believe  that  the  poison- 
problem  will  be  ultimately  solved  on  that  principle. 
The  work  of  reform  must  begin  in  the  nursery ;  and, 
under  circumstances  where  we  can  not  keep  tempta- 


HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS.  231 

tions  from  our  door,  we  must  make  our  children  temp- 
tation-proof, inspire  them  with  an  indelible  abhorrence 
of  drunkenness  and  poison-slavery  of  every  kind. 

"  I  still  find  the  Laconic  method  the  shortest,"  writes 
a  friend  of  mine,  alluding  to  the  Spartan  plan  of  warn- 
ing boys  by  the  example  of  a  drunken  Helot.  He  used 
to  interest  his  boy  in  the  modus  operandi  of  alcohol, 
opium,  etc.,  and  then  take  him  out,  and,  under  some 
pretext  or  other,  drop  into  a  slum-saloon  on  Saturday 
night,  or  a  police-court  on  Monday  morning,  to  give 
him  a  practical  illustration  of  his  theory.  Whenever 
they  saw  the  poison  displayed  in  an  attractive  form,  on 
ornamental  sign-boards  or  in  the  gorgeous  bottles  of 
druggists  and  hotel-keepers,  they  would  study  the  well- 
baited  trap  with  a  peculiar  interest,  and  go  their  way 
rejoicing,  as  in  the  possession  of  an  invaluable  secret. 
The  result  was  that  the  boy  became  "  aggressively  virtu- 
ous," and  used  to  button-hole  visitors  in  order  to  lect- 
ure them  on  the  causes  and  consequences  of  the  popu- 
lar delusion. 

Even  city  boys  do  not  often  contract  the  nicotine 
habit  till  after  their  twelfth  year,  and  a  fit  of  tobacco- 
nausea  before  that  time  generally  induces  a  forbidding 
reaction  not  easy  to  outgrow.  I  remember  the  case  of 
a  brutal  tavern-keeper  who  tried  to  accustom  his  son  to 
the  fumes  of  Alsatian  leaf-tobacco  (vulgo  Stinkewitz), 
and  the  unexpected  result  of  his  last  experiment.  He 
took  the  lad  on  a  stage-coach  trip  from  Colmar  to  Metz, 
and  induced  the  postillion  to  take  in  a  few  extra  passen- 
gers, whom  he  treated  to  clay  pipes  and  Stinkewitz. 
He  then  closed  the  windows,  and  in  less  than  twenty 
minutes  his  son  turned  deadly  pale,  and  would  have 
fainted  if  he  had  not  found  relief  in  a  violent  fit  of 
retching.  If  he  had  loathed  Stinkewitz  before,  he  now 


232  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

dreaded  it,  and  six  years  after,  when  he  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  tanner,  he  surprised  his  master  by  asking,  as 
for  a  special  favor,  that  they  would  not  force  him  to 
smoke  leaf-tobacco.  Frederick  the  Great,  too,  ascribed 
his  abhorrence  of  the  weed  to  the  choking  tobacco- 
fumes  of  the  Wusterhauser  club-room,  where  the  boon 
companions  of  his  awful  parent  used  to  indulge  from  5 
to  12  P.  M.  It  is  not  necessary  to  suffocate  a  child  with 
nicotine-fumes,  but  it  can  do  no  harm  to  take  him  once 
in  a  while  to  a  smoker's  den,  to  sniff  the  "  pestilent  and 
penal  fires,"  and  let  him  glory  in  his  blest  exemption. 

Coffee  and  tea  temptations,  pungent  spices,  etc., 
may  be  forestalled  in  the  same  way ;  much  is  gained  if 
the  dietetic  innocence  of  a  child  has  been  preserved  to 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  year,  the  age  when  routine 
habits  first  become  physiologically  confirmed.  The 
habits  of  the  last  years  of  growth  become  ingrained,  as 
it  were,  with  the  constitution  of  the  body,  and  will  bias 
the  physical  inclinations  of  all  after-years ;  circum- 
stances may  oblige  a  man  to  conform  to  the  customs  of 
a  foreign  country,  the  rules  of  a  regimental  mess,  etc., 
but,  upon  the  first  opportunity  of  regulating  his  own 
regimen,  the  habits  of  his  boyhood  will  reassert  them- 
selves, even  in  regard  to  the  time  and  number  of  his 
daily  meals.  I  know  from  personal  experience  the  un- 
speakable advantage  of  having  a  constitutional  predilec- 
tion for  postponing  the  principal  meal  till  the  day's 
work  is  done.  It  was  the  plan  of  the  ancient  Greeks, 
and  to  their  followers  every  day  is  its  own  reward — the 
symposium,  and  the  long,  undisturbed  siesta  a  daily 
festival.  It  almost  doubles  a  man's  working  capacity, 
by  saving  him  the  dire  daily  struggle  between  duty  and 
the  after-dinner  drowsiness.  Children  who  have  tried 
the  two  methods  will  rarely  hesitate  in  their  choice. 


HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS.  233 

Give  them  a  lunch  at  twelve  o'clock,  and  for  breakfast 
a  crust  of  sweet  bran-bread,  the  coarser  the  better.  A 
hard  crust  is  the  best  possible  dentifrice.  I  never  could 
get  myself  to  believe  in  the  natural  necessity  of  a  tooth- 
brush. The  African  nations,  the  Hindoos,  the  natives 
of  Southern  Europe,  the  South-Sea  Islanders,  the  Arabs, 
the  South  American  vegetarians,  in  short,  three  fourths 
of  our  fellow-men,  besides  our  next  relatives,  the  fru- 
givorous  animals,  have  splendid  teeth  without  sozodont. 
I  really  believe  that  ours  decay  from  sheer  disuse ;  the 
boarding-house  homo  lives  chiefly  on  pap — wants  all 
his  meats  soft-boiled,  and  groAvls  at  cold  biscuit  or  an 
underdone  potato ;  in  other  words,  he  delegates  to  the 
cook  the  proper  functions  of  his  teeth.  We  hear  occa- 
sionally of  old  men  getting  a  second,  or  rather  third, 
set  of  teeth.  I  met  one  of  them  in  Northern  Guate- 
mala, and  ascertained  that  he  had  become  toothless  dur- 
ing a  twelve  years'  sojourn  in  a  sea-port  town,  and  that 
he  got  his  new  set  upon  his  return  to  his  native  village, 
where  circumstances  obliged  him  to  resume  the  hard 
corn-cake  diet  of  his  boyhood  years.  His  teeth  had 
reappeared,  as  soon  as  their  services  were  called  for, 
and  would  probably  never  have  absented  themselves  if 
a  pap-diet  had  not  made  them  superfluous.  An  artifi- 
cial dentifrice  will  certainly  keep  the  teeth  white,  but 
that  does  not  prevent  their  premature  decay;  disuse 
gradually  softens  their  substance,  till  one  fine  day  the 
hash-eater  snaps  his  best  incisor  upon  an  unexpected 
piece  of  bone.  Every  old  dentist  knows  hundreds  of 
city  customers  whom  the  daily  use  of  a  tooth-brush  did 
not  save  from  the  necessity  of  applying,  before  the  end 
of  the  fortieth  year,  for  a  complete  "  celluloid  set."  I 
do  not  say  that  a  soft  tooth-brush  and  such  dentifrices 
as  oatmeal  or  burned  arrow-root  can  do  any  harm,  but, 


234  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

for  sanitary  purposes,  such  precautions  must  be  supple- 
mented by  dental  exercise.  Let  a  child  invigorate  its 
teeth  by  chewing  a  hard  crust,  or,  better  yet,  a  handful 
of  "  St.  John's  bread "  or  carob-beans,  the  edible  pod 
of  the  Mimosa  siliqua.  Children  and  whole  tribes  of 
the  northern  races  seem  to  feel  an  instinctive  desire  to 
exercise  their  teeth  upon  some  solid  substance,  as  pet 
squirrels  will  gnaw  the  furniture  if  you  give  them  nut- 
kernels  instead  of  nuts.  Thus  Kohl  tells  us  that  the 
natives  of  Southern  Russia  are  addicted  to  the  practice 
of  chewing  a. vegetable  product  which  he  at  first  sup- 
posed to  be  pumpkin  or  melon  seeds,  but  found  to  be 
the  much  harder  seed  of  the  Turkish  sunflower  (Helian- 
thus  perennis).  Their  national  diet  consists  of  milk, 
Tcukuruz  (hominy,  with  butter,  etc.),  and  boiled  mut- 
ton, and  they  seem  to  feel  that  their  Turkoman  jaws 
need  something  more  substantial.  The  school-boy  habit 
of  gnawing  pen-holders,  finger-nails,  etc.,  may  have  a 
similar  significance.  The  Mimosa  siliqua  would  yield 
abundantly  in  our  Southern  States,  and  its  sweet  pods 
would  make  an  excellent  substitute  for  chewing-gum. 
Our  practice  of  sipping  ice-cold  and  steaming-hot  drinks, 
turn  about,  has  also  a  very  injurious  effect  upon  the 
brittle  substance  that  forms  the  enamel  of  our  teeth ; 
no  porcelain-glaze  would  stand  such  abuse  for  any  length 
of  time,  and  experience  has  taught  hunters  and  dog- 
fanciers  that  it  destroys  even  the  bone-crashing  fangs 
of  the  animal  from  which  our  canine  teeth  derive  their 
name. 

Various  diseases  of  the  eye,  including  myopia,  stru- 
mous  and  catarrhal  ophthalmia,  are  due  to  a  scrofulous 
diathesis,  and  sometimes  to  a  general  debility,  and  can 
be  radically  cured  only  by  out-door  exercise  and  a  more 
nutritious  diet.  But  a  transient  "  weak-sightedness " 


HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS.  235 

(Schwach-sichtigkeit)  as  the  Germans  call  it)  is  emi- 
nently a  disease  of  the  school-room,  caused  by  a  per- 
sistent abuse  of  the  eyes,  poring  for  hours  together  over 
a  spelling-book  or  writing  by  the  light  of  a  flickering 
candle  (much  worse  than  twilight),  as  well  as  by  the 
wretched  print  of  our  modern  dictionaries  and  cheap 
cyclopaedias.  It  should  be  kept  in  mind  that  reading 
and  writing,  even  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances, require  an  effort  to  which  the  eye  can  only  very 
gradually  accustom  itself.  Hereditary  influences  and 
the  preliminary  exercises  of  the  infant's  eye,  as,  in  ex- 
amining picture-books,  the  first  graphic  essays  with  a 
slate-pencil,  etc.,  may  help  to  smooth  the  difficulty; 
for  it  is  a  fact,  attested  by  the  experience  of  all  school- 
teaching  missionaries,  that  the  eyes  of  an  adult,  sharp- 
sighted  savage  begin  to  smart  and  water  at  the  first 
attempt  to  decipher  the  hieroglyphics  of  his  primer. 
The  rudiments  ought  to  be  taught  in  half-hour  lessons, 
with  liberal  intervals  of  rest  and  out-door  play ;  and 
scrofulous  children  should  never  be  sent  to  a  public 
school  till  after  a  novitiate  of  at  least  six  months  of  home 
studies.  Instruct  them  never  to  pore  over  a  book,  but 
to  keep  the  head  erect,  and,  at  the  first  symptoms  of 
dim-sightedness,  to  let  the  eyes  rest  upon  some  distant 
object,  till  the  optic  nerve  has  recovered  from  the  short- 
range  strain.  The  hues  of  the  forest  have  a  wonderfully 
strengthening  influence  upon  weak  eyes,  almost  like  its 
air  upon  weak  lungs ;  a  woodland  excursion  is  like  a 
return  to  our  native  element,  the  birth-land  to  whose 
life-conditions  the  organs  of  our  ancestors  were  origi- 
nally adapted. 

Accidents  can  not  be  avoided  by  keeping  a  boy  in 
his  nurse's  arms  or  in  a  padded  family  coach.  Sooner 
or  later  he  will  have  to  rely  on  his  own  limbs,  and  it  is 


236  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

best  that  time  should  find  him  well  prepared.  Let  him 
rough  it,  barefoot  and  bareheaded ;  let  him  climb  hills 
and  take  short  cuts  over  fences  and  ravines ;  every  fall, 
every  skinned  elbow  and  bumped  head,  will  impart  a 
lesson  in  the  art  of  locomotion.  Without  apprentice- 
fees  of  that  sort  he  will  never  get  to  be  a  master.  I 
would  even  connive  at  an  occasional  rough-and-tumble 
fight  with  a  wild  comrade ;  it  will  acquaint  him  with 
what  Talleyrand  used  to  call  the  "  esoteric  reason  for 
preserving  the  peace."  Constructiveness,  too,  often  the 
redeeming  propensity  of  a  young  scape-grace,  has  its 
dangers  which  had  better  be  mastered  than  avoided.  In- 
stead of  lecturing  a  lad  or  taking  away  his  pocket-knife 
for  cutting  his  finger,  engage  a  carpenter  to  teach  him 
the  proper  use  of  edge-tools.  Let  him  have  a  little 
workshop  of  his  own,  with  a  lot  of  scrap-tin,  boards, 
nails,  and  a  five-dollar  tool-box.  Ten  to  one  that  those 
five  dollars  will  save  ten  cents  a  week  for  dime-novels, 
and,  by-and-by,  ten  dollars  a  month  for  beer  and  tobacco. 
If  your  son  should  manifest  symptoms  of  the  collect- 
ing-mania, try  to  direct  it  to  objects  of  natural  history 
— herbs,  beetles,  or  butterflies.  It  may  lead  to  deeper 
studies,  and  the  love  of  nature  in  general.  A  passion  for 
the  study  of  natural  history  has  often  turned  the  scales 
in  a  choice  between  a  farm  and  a  dry-goods  prison. 

"  On  a  visit  to  Paris,"  says  Carl  Weber  ("  Democri- 
tos,"  vol.  ix,  p.  166),  "  the  Mentor  of  a  young  man,  after 
a  trip  to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  should  not  fail  to  take 
him  to  Bertrand  Rival's  Anatomical  Wax-work  Museum. 
It  is  no  misnomer  if  Bertrand  calls  his  collection  '  Mu- 
see  physiologique,  historique  et  morale ' — intended  not 
only  to  instruct  but  to  warn  the  visitor.  Solus  tota  ilia 
sapere  est"  As  a  last  resort,  perhaps,  but  hardly  before 
the  twentieth  year.  Precocious  prurience  is  due  to 


HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS.  237 

causes  which  can  generally  be  avoided.  If  you  can 
educate  the  younger  children  at  home  and  select  their 
playmates,  there  is  no  real  danger  before  the  eleventh 
year  of  a  boy  and  the  ninth  of  a  girl.  After  that, 
the  following  precautions  will  suffice  in  all  but  the  un- 
luckiest  cases  :  Let  your  children  have  plenty  of  out-door 
play,  especially  in  the  evening.  Wait  till  they  are 
really  sleepy  before  you  send  them  to  bed.  Let  every 
child  have  its  own  bed,  or  at  least  its  own  bedclothes. 
Keep  your  small  boys  out  of  the  servants'  room,  and  your 
girls  after  their  tenth  year ;  with  girls  under  ten  there 
is  less  danger :  they  are  quite  sure  to  tell  about  any 
improper  thing  they  see  or  hear,  and  the  servants  seem 
to  know  that  instinctively.  Do  not  leave  them  alone 
with  elder  children — not  even  with  their  own  neighbors' 
and  relatives' — till  you  have  satisfied  yourself  about  the 
character  of  their  new  friends.  No  need  of  a  phrenolo- 
gist to  settle  that  point :  the  indications  of  a  child's 
propensities  are  not  confined  to  the  cranium.  Yary  the 
child's  diet  with  the  season ;  put  the  flesh-pots  aside 
when  the  approach  of  the  summer  solstice  threatens  the 
land  with  the  temperatures  and  temptations  of  Southern 
Italy.  Let  them  avoid  all  greasy-made  dishes  when  it 
is  too  warm  to  take  much  out-door  exercise.  And,  if 
possible,  cultivate  their  literary  taste  to  the  degree  that 
enables  them  to  appreciate  the  wit  or  the  common-sense 
of  an  author,  as  well  as  his  imagination,  and  conse- 
quently to  loathe  unmitigated  absurdities.  That  alone 
will  be  an  effectual  safeguard  against  ninety-nine  dime- 
novels  out  of  a  hundred. 

In  conclusion,  I  will  add  a  short  miscellany  of  hy- 
gienic rules  and  aphorisms. 

The  first  thing  a  child  should  learn  is,  to  ask  for  a 
drink  of  water.  I  have  seen  hand-fed  children  scream 


238  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

and  fidget  for  hours  together,  as  if  troubled  by  some 
unsatisfied  want,  but  at  the  same  time  rejecting  the 
milk-bottle  and  pap-dish  with  growing  impatience.  In 
nine  such  cases  out  of  ten  the  nurse  will  either  resort 
to  paregoric  or  try  the  effect  of  a  lullaby.  I  need  not 
say  that  the  poison-expedient  would  be  wrong  under  all 
circumstances,  but,  before  you  try  anything  else,  offer 
the  child  a  cup  of  cold  water.  To  a  young  nursling  the 
mother's  breast  supplies  both  food  and  drink,  but  fari- 
naceous paps  require  a  better  diluent  than  milk. 

If  I  should  name  the  greatest  danger  of  childhood, 
I  would  unhesitatingly  say,  Medicine.  A  drastic  drug 
as  a  remedial  agent  is  Beelzebub  in  the  role  of  an  ex- 
orcist. 

Our  nursery  system,  after  all  reforms,  is  still  far 
from  being  the  right  one — how  far,  we  may  infer  from 
the  fact  that  we  have  not  yet  learned  to  make  our  ba- 
bies behave  as  well  as  young  animals. 

Tight-swaddling,  strait-jacket  gowns,  and  trailing 
petticoats — restraint,  in  short,  makes  our  infants  so 
peevish.  If  we  would  give  them  a  chance  to  use  their 
limbs  they  would  have  no  time  to  scream. 

It  would  prevent  innumerable  diseases  if  people 
would  learn  to  distinguish  a  morbid  appetency  from  a 
healthy  appetite.  One  diagnostic  rule  is  this,  that  the 
gratification  of  the  latter  is  not  followed  by  repentance ; 
another,  that  the  former  has  to  be  artificially  and  pain- 
fully acquired :  our  better  nature  resists  the  incipience 
of  a  morbid  "  second  nature."  After  acquitting  Nature 
from  all  responsibility  for  such  factitious  appetites,  it 
may  be  justly  said  that  a  man  can  find  a  road  to  health 
and  happiness  by  simply  following  his  instincts. 

The  supposed  danger  of  cold  drinks  on  a  hot  day  is 
a  very  expensive  superstition.  It  deprives  thousands 


HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS.  239 

of  people  of  the  most  pleasurable  sensation  the  human 
palate  is  capable  of.  It  is  worth  a  two  hours'  anabasis 
in  the  dog-days  to  drink  your  fill  at  the  coldest  rock- 
spring  of  the  mountains. 

Bathing  in  flannel ! — I  would  as  soon  take  ice-cream 
in  capsules.  The  price  of  the  flannel  suit  would  buy 
you  a  season-ticket  to  a  lonely  beach. 

A  disposition  to  excessive  perspiration  is  often  due 
to  general  debility,  but  there  is  a  specific  remedy  for  it. 
Fill  your  knapsack  with  substantial  and  take  a  pedes- 
trian trip  in  midsummer,  up-hill,  if  possible,  and  with- 
out loitering  under  the  shade-trees ;  in  short,  give  your 
body  something  worth  perspiring  for.  After  that  it 
will  be  less  lavish  of  gratuitous  performances  of  that 
sort.  The  soldiers  of  the  Legion  Etrangere  are  mostly 
northmen — Poles,  Belgians,  and  Russians — but  upon 
their  return  from  a  year's  service  in  Algiers  it  takes  a 
long  double-quick  under  a  Mediterranean  sun  to  drill 
them  into  a  sweat. 

"  A  catarrh  is  the  beginning  of  a  lung-disease."  It 
would  be  the  end  of  it  if  we  did  not  aggravate  it  with 
nostrums  and  fusty  sick-rooms. 

Somehow  or  other  we  must  have  abused  our  teeth 
shamefully  before  Nature  had  to  resort  to  such  a  veto 
as  toothache. 

A  tooth  pulled  in  time  saves  nine. 

"  If  you  doubt  whether  a  contemplated  act  is  right 
or  wrong,"  says  Zoroaster,  "  it  is  the  safest  plan  to  omit 
it."  Let  dyspeptics  remember  that  when  they  hesitate 
at  the  brink  of  another  plateful. 

The  digestion  of  superfluous  food  almost  monopo- 
lizes the  vital  energy ;  hence  the  mental  and  physical 
indolence  of  great  eaters.  Strong-headed  business-men 
manage  to  conquer  that  indolence,  but  only  by  an  ef- 


240  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

fort  that  would  have  made  the  fortune  of  a  temperate 
eater. 

A  glutton  will  find  it  easier  to  reduce  the  number 
of  his  meals  than  the  number  of  his  dishes. 

Highland  children  are  the  healthiest,  and,  even 
starving,  the  happiest.  "  There  is  no  joy  the  town  can 
give  like  those  it  takes  away." 

Paracelsus  informs  us  that  the  composition  of  his 
"  triple  panacea  "  can  be  described  only  in  the  language 
of  alchemistic  adepts.  Nature's  triple  panacea  is  less 
indescribable — fasting,  fresh  air,  and  exercise. 

A  banquet  without  fruit  is  a  garden  without  flowers. 

The  best  stuff  for  summer-wear :  one  stratum  of  the 
lightest  mosquito-proof  linen. 

"  Do  animals  ever  go  to  the  gymnasium  ? "  asks  an 
opponent  of  the  movement-cure.  Never :  they  have 
no  time — they  are  too  busy  practicing  gymnastics  out- 
doors. 

Descent  from  a  long-lived  race  is  not  always  a  guar- 
antee of  longevity.  A  far  more  important  point  is  the 
sanitary  condition  of  the  parents  at  the  birth  of  the 
child.  Pluck,  however,  is  hereditary,  and  has  certainly 
a  prophylactic,  a  "  health-compelling  "  influence. 

The  first  gray  hairs  are  generally  a  sign  of  dear- 
bought  wisdom. 

The  "  breaking-up "  of  a  pulmonary  disease  could 
often  be  accomplished  by  breaking  the  bedroom-win- 
dows. 

Death,  formerly  the  end  of  health,  is  nowadays  the 
end  of  a  disease. 

Dying  a  natural  death  is  one  of  the  lost  arts. 

There  seems  to  be  a  strange  fatum  in  the  association 
of  astronomy  with  humbug :  formerly  in  horoscopes, 
and  now  in  patent-medicine  almanacs. 


HYGIENIC  PRECAUTIONS.  241 

A  patent-medicine  man  is  generally  the  patentee  of 
a  device  for  selling  whisky  under  a  new  name. 

A  "  chronic  disease,"  properly  speaking,  is  nothing 
but  Nature's  protest  against  a  chronic  provocation.  To 
say  that  chronic  complaints  end  only  with  death,  means, 
in  fact,  that  there  is  generally  no  other  cure  for  our 
vices. 

Every  night  labors  to  undo  the  physiological  mis- 
chief of  the  preceding  day — at  what  expense,  gluttons 
may  compute  if  they  compare  the  golden  dreams  of 
their  childhood  with  the  leaden  torpor-slumbers  of  their 
pork  and  lager-beer  years. 

If  it  were  not  for  calorific  food  and  superfluous  gar- 
ments, midsummer  would  be  the  most  pleasant  time  of 

the  year. 

11 


CHAPTER  X. 

POPULAR   FALLACIES. 

"  A  national  superstition  is  a  national  misfortune.  No  pious  fraud  has 
ever  advantaged  the  world,  for  every  popular  delusion  becomes  the  mother 
of  a  noxious  and  numerous  progeny." — HELVETIUS. 

LOGICIANS  distinguish  between  inferential  and  pre- 
sumptive fallacies,  the  first  being  founded  upon  illogical 
conclusions  from  correct  premises,  the  second  upon 
logical  conclusions  from  incorrect  premises.  With  few 
exceptions  the  most  mischievous  popular  delusions  of 
all  ages  have  arisen  from  the  latter — the  "presump- 
tive" fallacies.  Where  their  own  -interests  are  in- 
volved, men  seem  gifted  with  an  instinctive  faculty 
for  looking  through  the  tricks  by  which  a  word-juggler 
appears  to  support  his  sophisms  with  axioms  known  to 
be  true,  but,  where  that  knowledge  itself  has  been  falsi- 
fied (by  repeating  fictions  till  they  assume  the  semblance 
of  truisms),  all  thus  biased  will  accept  as  sound  what- 
ever logical  superstructure  dupes  or  impostors  may 
choose  to  erect  upon  such  sham  facts.  If  a  man  had 
been  persuaded  that  cold  is  a  panacea,  he  would  natu- 
rally conclude  that  Siberia  must  be  the  healthiest  coun- 
try in  the  world.  In  Hindostan,  where  the  sanctity  of 
horned  cattle  is  an  established  dogma,  no  true  believer 
would  hesitate  to  indict  an  irreverent  bull-driver  for 
blasphemy,  or  to  preserve  a  beefsteak  as  a  sacred  relic. 
As  long  as  the  Bible  passed  for  infallible,  it  seemed 


POPULAR  FALLACIES.  £43 

perfectly  logical  to  ascribe  diseases  to  witchcraft  and 
their  cure  to  prayer,  to  regard  a  man's  natural  instincts 
as  his  natural  foes,  to  deny  the  difference  between  one 
and  three,  and  treat  mathematicians  as  enemies  of  the 
human  race.  The  systematic  application  of  spurious 
principles  has  led  to  strange  results,  and  latterly  to  still 
stranger  disputes  concerning  the  propriety  of  acknowl- 
edging the  failure,  and  the  best  way  of  compromising 
the  consequences ;  but  such  controversies  could  often 
be  simplified  by  tracing  the  effects  to  their  causes.  Ill- 
founded  buildings  are  naturally  shaky.  Still,  people 
dislike  to  be  lectured  on  the  chronic  dilapidation  of  their 
parlor-walls.  But  he  who  succeeds  in  exposing  the  rot- 
tenness of  the  foundation-timbers  will  need  no  specious 
arguments  to  demonstrate  the  expediency  of  removing 
the  household  goods  to  a  safer  place. 

For  many  centuries  the  training  of  the  young  was 
almost  monopolized  by  the  propagandists  of  that  most 
terrible  of  all  delusions,  the  natural-depravity  dogma, 
and  our  whole  system  of  practical  education  is  still 
interwoven  with  the  following  fallacies,  all  more  or  less 
deeply-rooted  upshots  of  that  dogma : 

1.  THE  LEADING-STRINGS  FALLACY. — From  the  mo- 
ment a  child  is  born,  he  is  treated  on  the  principle  that 
all  his  instincts  are  essentially  wrong,  that  Nature  must 
be  thwarted  and  counteracted  in  every  possible  way. 
He  is  strapped  up  in  a  contrivance  that  he  would  be 
glad  to  exchange  for  a  strait-jacket,  kept  for  hours  in  a 
position  that  prevents  him  from  moving  any  limb  of 
his  body.  His  first  attempts  at  locomotion  are  checked  ; 
he  is  put  in  leading-strings,  he  is  carefully  guarded 
from  the  out-door  world,  from  the  air  that  would  in- 
vigorate his  lungs,  from  the  sports  that  would  develop 
his  muscles.  Hence,  the  peevishness,  awkwardness, 


244  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

and  sickliness  of  our  young  aristocrats.  Poor  people 
have  no  time  to  imitate  the  absurdities  of  then*  wealthy 
neighbors,  and  their  children  profit  by  what  the  model 
nurse  would  undoubtedly  call  neglect.  Indian  babies 
are  still  better  off.  They  are  fed  on  bull-beef,  and 
kicked  around  like  young  dogs ;  but  they  are  not  swad- 
dled, they  are  not  cradled,  and  not  dosed  with  pare- 
goric ;  they  crawl  around  naked,  and  soon  learn  to 
keep  out  of  the  way  ;  they  a're  happy,  they  never  cry. 
If  we  would  treat  our  youngsters  in  the  same  way,  only 
substituting  kisses  and  bread  for  kicks  and  beef,  they 
would  be  as  happy  as  kids  in  a  clover-field,  and  more- 
over they  would  afterward  be  hardier  and  stronger. 
Every  week  the  newspapers  tell  us  about  ladies  tum- 
bling down-stairs  and  breaking  both  arms ;  boys  falling 
from  a  fence  and  fracturing  their  collar-bones.  From 
what  height  would  a  young  Comanche  have  to  fall  to 
break  such  bones — not  to  mention  South-Sea  Island 
children  and  young  monkeys  ?  The  bones  of  an  infant 
are  plastic :  letting  it  tumble  and  roll  about  would 
harden  the  bony  tissue;  guarding  it  like  a  piece  of 
brittle  crockery  makes  its  limbs  as  fragile  as  glass. 
Christian  mothers  reproach  themselves  with  neglecting 
their  duty  to  their  children  if  they  do  not  constantly 
interfere  with  their  movements,  but  they  forget  that  in 
points  of  physical  education  Nature  herself  is  such  an 
excellent  teacher  that  the  apparent  neglect  is  really  a 
transfer  of  the  pupil  to  a  more  efficient  school. 

2.  THE  NOSTRUM  FALLACY. — When  a  child  com- 
plains of  headache,  lassitude,  or  want  of  appetite,  the 
nurse  concludes  that  he  must  "take  something."  If 
the  complexion  of  a  young  lady  grows  every  day  paler 
and  pastier,  her  mother  will  insist  that  she  must  "  get 
something"  to  purify  her  blood.  If  the  baby  squeals 


POPULAR  FALLACIES.  245 

day  and  night,  a  doctor  is  sent  for,  and  is  expected  to 
"  prescribe  something."  What  that  something  should 
be,  the  parents  would  be  unable  to  define,  but  they  have 
a  vague  idea  that  it  should  come  from  the  drug-store, 
and  that  it  can  not  be  good  for  much  unless  it  is  bitter 
or  nauseous.  Traced  to  its  principles  their  theory 
would  be  about  this  :  "  Sickness  and  depravity  are  the 
normal  condition  of  our  nature;  salvation  can  come 
only  through  abnormal  agencies ;  and  a  remedy,  in  order 
to  be  effective,  should  be  as  anti-natural  as  possible." 
Perfectly  logical  from  a  Scriptural  point  of  view.  But 
Nature  still  persists  in  following  her  own  laws.  Her 
physiological  laws  she  announces  by  means  of  the  in- 
stincts which  man  shares  with  the  humblest  of  his  fel- 
low-creatures, and  health  is  her  free  gift  to  all  who 
trust  themselves  to  the  guidance  of  those  instincts. 
Health  is  not  lost  by  accident,  nor  can  it  be  repurchased 
at  the  drug-store.  It  is  lost  by  physiological  sins,  and 
can  be  regained  only  by  sinning  no  more.  Disease  is 
Nature's  protest  against  a  gross  violation  of  her  laws. 
Suppressing  the  symptoms  of  a  disease  with  drugs  means 
to  silence  that  protest  instead  of  removing  the  cause. 
We  might  as  well  try  to  extinguish  a  fire  by  silencing 
the  fire-bells ;  the  alarm  will  soon  be  sounded  from  an- 
other quarter,  though  the  first  bells  may  not  ring  again 
till  the  belfry  breaks  down  in  a  general  conflagration. 
For  the  laws  of  health,  though  liberal  enough  to  be  ap- 
parently plastic,  are  in  reality  as  inexorable  as  time  and 
gravitation.  We  can  not  bully  Nature,  we  can  not  defy 
her  resentment  by  a  fresh  provocation.  Drugs  may 
change  the  form  of  the  disease — i.  e.,  modify  the  terms 
of  the  protest — but  the  law  can  not  be  baffled  by  com- 
plicating the  offense :  before  the  drugged  patient  can 
recover,  he  has  to  expiate  a  double  sin — the  medicine 


24:6  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

and  the  original  cause  of  the  disease.  But  shall  parents 
look  on  and  let  a  sick  child  ask  in  vain  for  help  ?  By 
no  means.  Something  is  certainly  wrong,  and  has  to 
be  righted.  The  disease  itself  is  a  cry  for  help.  But 
not  for  drugs.  Instead  of  "  taking  something,"  some- 
thing ought  to  be  done,  and  oftener  something  habitu- 
ally done  ought  to  be  omitted.  If  the  baby's  stomach 
has  been  tormented  with  ten  nursings  a  day,  omit  six 
of  them ;  omit  tea  and  coffee  from  the  young  lady's 
menu  •  stop  the  dyspeptic's  meat-rations,  and  the  young- 
ster's grammar-lessons  after  dinner.  But  open  the  bed- 
room-windows, open  the  door  and  let  your  children  take 
a  romp  in  the  garden,  or  on  the  street,  even  on  a  snow- 
covered  street.  Let  them  spend  their  Sundays  with  an 
uncle  who  has  a  good  orchard ;  or,  send  for  a  barrel  of 
apples.  Send  for  the  carpenter,  and  let  him  turn  the 
nursery  or  the  wood-shed  into  a  gymnasium.  In  case 
you  have  nothing  but  your  bedroom  and  kitchen,  there 
will  still  be  room  for  a  grapple-swing ;  the  Boston  Hy- 
gienic Institute  has  patented  a  kind  that  can  be  fastened 
without  visible  damage  to  the  ceiling.  If  the  baby 
won't  stop  crying,  something  ought  to  be  done  about  it. 
Yes,  and  as  soon  as  possible :  remove  the  strait-jacket 
apparatus,  swaddling-clothes,  petticoat,  and  all,  spread  a 
couple  of  rugs  in  a  comfortable  corner,  and  give  the 
poor  little  martyr  a  chance  to  move  his  cramped  limbs ; 
let  him  roll,  tumble,  and  kick  to  his  heart's  content,  and 
complete  his  happiness  by  throwing  the  paregoric-bottle 
out  of  the  window. 

3.  THE  STIMULANT  FALLACY. — Eight  hours  of 
healthy  sleep  are  sufficient  to  restore  the  energy  ex- 
pended in  an  ordinary  day's  work.  Extraordinary  ef- 
forts, emotional  excitement,  sensual  excesses,  or  malnu- 
trition (either  by  insufficient  food  or  dyspeptic  habits), 


POPULAR  FALLACIES,  247 

induce  a  general  lassitude — a  warning  that  the  organism 
is  being  overtasked.  Repose  and  a  healthier  or  more 
liberal  diet  will  soon  restore  the  functional  vigor  of  the 
system.  But  during  such  periods  of  their  diminished 
activity  the  vital  powers  can  be  rallied  by  drastic  drugs 
or  tonic  beverages — in  other  words,  by  poisons.  The 
prostrate  vitality  rises  against  a  deadly  foe,  as  a  weary 
sleeper  would  start  at  the  touch  of  a  serpent ;  and,  as 
danger  will  momentarily  overcome  the  feeling  of  fatigue, 
the  organism  labors  with  restless  energy  till  the  poison 
is  expelled.  This  feverish  reaction  dram-drinkers  (pat- 
ent dram-drinkers  especially)  mistake  for  a  sign  of  re- 
turning vigor,  persistently  ignoring  the  circumstance 
that  the  excitement  is  every  time  followed  by  a  pros- 
tration worse  than  that  preceding  it.  Feeling  the  ap- 
proach of  a  relapse  the  stimulator  then  resorts  to  his 
old  remedy,  thus  inducing  another  sham  revival,  fol- 
lowed by  an  increased  prostration,  and  so  on ;  but  be- 
fore long  the  dose  of  the  stimulant,  too,  has  to  be  in- 
creased, the  stimulator  becomes  a  slave  to  his  poison, 
and  passes  his  life  in  a  round  of  morbid  excitements 
and  morbid  exhaustions — the  former  at  last  nothing  but 
a  feeble  flickering-up  of  the  vital  flame,  the  latter  soon 
aggravated  by  sick-headaches,  "  vapors,"  and  hypochon- 
dria. 

The  stimulant  habit  in  all  its  forms — "  exhilarating 
beverages,"  "  tonic  medicines,"  "  prophylactic  bitters," 
etc. — is  a  dire  delusion.  A  healthy  man  needs  no  arti- 
ficial excitants  ;  the  vital  principle  in  its  normal  vigor 
is  an  all-sufficient  stimulus;  the  inspiration  bought  at 
the  rum-shop  is  but  a  poor  substitute  for  the  sponta- 
neous exaltations  of  a  healthy  mind  in  a  healthy  body. 
Playing  with  poisons  is  a  losing  game ;  the  sweetness 
of  the  excitement  is  not  worth  the  bitter  reaction.  In 


248  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

sickness  stimulants  can  not  further  the  actual  recovery 
by  a  single  hour.  There  is  a  strong  progressive  ten- 
dency in  our  physical  constitution  ;  Nature  needs  no 
prompter :  as  soon  as  the  remedial  process  is  finished, 
the  normal  functions  of  the  organism  will  resume  their 
work  as  spontaneously  as  the  current  of  a  stream  re- 
sumes its  course  after  the  removal  of  an  obstruction. 
A  "  prophylactic  "  brandy  is  old  Old  Scratch  in  the  role 
of  an  exorcist.  Fevers  can  be  prevented  by  other 
means ;  and  at  any  rate  the  possible  danger  of  a  climatic 
disease  is  preferable  to  the  sure  evils  of  the  poison-drug. 
But  how  can  noxious  stimulants  be  distinguished  from 
wholesome  drinks  ?  Tonic  medicines,  stimulating  bev- 
erages, and  poisons,  are  synonymous  terms.  Every 
known  poison  can  become  a  lusted-after  stimulant  by 
forcing  it  repeatedly  upon  the  (at  first)  reluctant  stom- 
ach. It  is  true  that  the  hankering  of  an  old  habitue 
after  his  tipple  resembles  the  craving  of  a  hungry  man 
for  food,  but  that  constitutes  no  reproach  against  Nat- 
ure, for  the  taste  of  the  first  drink  betrayed  the  poison. 
To  the  palate  of  a  child  narcotic  stimulants  are  bitter, 
alcohol  is  burning-acrid,  tobacco  nauseous,  mineral  poi- 
sons either  bitter  or  insipid.  By  a  liberal  admixture 
of  sugar  and  milk  the  repulsiveness  of  various  narcotic 
decoctions  can  be  diminished,  but  in  no  disguise  could 
they  be  possibly  mistaken  for  nourishing  substances  if 
the  natural-depravity  dogma  had  not  weakened  our  con- 
fidence in  the  testimony  of  our  instincts. 

4.  THE  COLD- AIR  FALLACY. — The  influence  of  anti- 
naturalism  is  most  strikingly  illustrated  in  our  supersti- 
tious dread  of  fresh  air.  The  air  of  the  out-door  world, 
of  the  woods  and  hills,  is,  par  excellence,  a  product 
of  Nature — of  wild,  free,  and  untamable  Nature — and 
therefore  the  presumptive  source  of  innumerable  evils. 


POPULAR  FALLACIES.  249 

Cold  air  is  the  general  scape-goat  of  all  sinners  against 
Nature.  When  the  knee-joints  of  the  young  debauchee 
begin  to  weaken,  he  suspects  he  has  "  taken  cold."  If 
an  old  glutton  has  a  crarnp  in  the  stomach,  he  ascribes 
it  to  an  incautious  exposure  on  coming  home  from  a 
late  supper.  Toothache  is  supposed  to  result  from 
"  draughts "  ;  croup,  neuralgia,  mumps,  etc.,  from  the 
"  raw  March  wind."  When  children  have  been  forced  to 
sleep  in  unventilated  bedrooms  till  their  lungs  putrefy 
with  their  own  exhalations,  the  materfamilias  reproaches 
herself  with  the  most  sensible  thing  she  has  been  doing 
for  the  last  hundred  nights — "opening  the  windows  last 
August  when  the  air  was  so  stiningly  hot."  The  old 
dyspeptic,  with  his  cupboards  full  of  patent  nostrums, 
can  honestly  acquit  himself  of  having  yielded  to  any 
natural  impulse  ;  after  sweltering  all  summer  behind 
hermetically  closed  windows,  wearing  flannel  in  the 
dog-days,  abstaining  from  cold  water  when  his  stomach 
craved  it,  swallowing  drugs  till  his  appetite  has  given 
way  to  chronic  nausea,  his  conscience  bears  witness  that 
he  has  done  what  he  could  to  suppress  the  original  de- 
pravity of  Nature ;  only  once  the  enemy  got  a  chance 
at  him  :  in  rummaging  his  garret  for  a  warming-pan  he 
stood  half  a  minute  before  a  broken  window — to  that 
half-minute,  accordingly,  he  attributes  his  rheumatism. 
For  catarrh  there  is  a  stereotyped  explanation  :  "  Catched 
cold."  That  settles  it.  The  invalid  is  quite  sure  that 
her  cough  came  on  an  hour  after  returning  from  that 
sleigh-ride.  She  felt  a  pain  in  the  chest  the  moment 
her  brother  opened  that  window.  There  is  no  doubt 
of  it — it's  all  the  night-air's  fault. 

The  truth  is,  that  cold  air  often  reveals  the  existence 
of  a  disease.  It  initiates  the  reconstructive  process,  and 
thus  apparently  the  disease  itself,  but  there  is  a  wide 


250  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

difference  between  a  proximate  and  an  original  cause. 
A  man  can  be  too  tired  to  sleep  and  too  weak  to  be 
sick.  Bleeding,  for  the  time  being,  may  "  break  up  " 
an  inflammatory  disease ;  the  system  must  regain  some 
little  strength  before  it  can  resume  the  work  of  recon- 
struction. The  vital  energy  of  a  person  breathing  the 
stagnant  air  of  an  unventilated  stove-room  is  often 
inadequate  to  the  task  of  undertaking  a  restorative 
process — though  the  respiratory  organs,  clogged  with 
phlegm  and  all  kinds  of  impurities,  may  be  sadly  in 
need  of  relief.  But,  during  a  sleigh-ride,  or  a  few 
hours'  sleep  before  a  window  left  open  by  accident,  the 
bracing  influence  of  the  fresh  air  revives  the  drooping 
vitality,  and  Nature  avails  herself  of  the  chance  to  be- 
gin repairs,  the  lungs  reveal  their  diseased  condition, 
i.  e.,  they  proceed  to  rid  themselves  of  the  accumulated 
impurities.  Persistent  in-door  life  would  have  aggra- 
vated the  evil  by  postponing  the  crisis,  or  by  turning  a 
temporary  affection  into  a  chronic  disease.  But  in  a 
plurality  of  cases  Nature  will  seize  even  upon  a  tran- 
sient improvement  of  the  external  circumstances :  a  cold 
night  that  disinfects  the  atmosphere  of  the  bedroom  in 
spite  of  closed  windows,  a  draught  of  cool  air  from  an 
adjoining  room,  or  one  of  those  accidental  exposures  to 
wind  and  weather  which  the  veriest  slave  of  the  cold- 
air  superstition  can  not  always  avoid.  For,  rightly  un- 
derstood, the  external  symptoms  of  a  disease  constitute 
a  restorative  process  that  can  not  be  brought  to  a  satis- 
factory issue  till  the  cause  of  the  evil  is  removed.  So 
that,  in  fact,  the  air-hater  confounds  the  cause  of  his 
recovery  with  the  cause  of  his  disease.  Among  nations 
who  pass  their  lives  out-doors,  catarrh  and  scrofula  are 
almost  unknown ;  not  fresh  air,  but  the  want  of  it,  is 
the  cause  of  countless  diseases,  of  fatal  diseases  where 


POPULAR  FALLACIES.  251 

people  are  in  the  habit  of  nailing  down  their  windows 
every  winter  to  keep  their  children  from  opening  them. 
"  In  one  such  den,"  says  Dr.  Bock,  "  I  was  so  overcome 
with  nausea  that  I  could  not  speak  till  I  had  knocked 
out  a  pane  of  glass.  That  is  about  the  best  thing  .one 
could  do  in  most  sick-rooms  " — except  knocking  out  the 
whole  window.  The  only  objection  to  a  "draught" 
through  a  defective  window  is,  that  the  draught  is  gen- 
erally not  strong  enough.  An  influx  of  fresh  air  into  a 
fusty  sick-room  is  a  ray  of  light  into  darkness,  a  mes- 
senger of  Yishnu  visiting  an  abode  of  the  damned. 
Cold  is  a  disinfectant,  and  under  the  pressure  of  a  high 
wind  a  modicum  of  oxygen  will  penetrate  a  house  in 
spite  of  closed  windows.  This  circumstance  alone  has 
preserved  the  lives  of  thousands  whom  no  cough-sirup 
or  cod-liver  oil  could  have  saved. 

5.  THE  FEYER  FALLACY. — Fever-and-ague,  being 
eminently  a  summer  disease,  could  not  very  well  be 
ascribed  to  cold  air;  but  the  anti-naturalists,  still  re- 
solved to  find  an  extraneous  cause,  have  selected  as 
their  .scape-goat  the  only  kind  of  natural  food  and  drink 
most  Christians  ever  touch  in  summer-time — fruits  and 
cold  water.  The  police  of  fever-stricken  towns  pro- 
hibit the  sale  of  fresh  fruit ;  fever-patients  are  kept  in 
sweat-boxes,  asking  in  vain  for  water  and  fresh  air; 
illustrated  almanacs  implore  us  to  fortify  our  constitu- 
tions with  patent  brandy — "  a  reliable  febrifuge,  and  in 
malarious  districts  the  only  safe  beverage." 

Considering  the  problem  from  a  purely  inductive 
stand-point,  we  shall  find  that  fruits  and  fevers  are  not 
necessarily  concomitant. .  Some  two  hundred  millions 
of  our  fellow-men  stick  to  a  frugal  diet  in  the  swampi- 
est districts  of  the  intertropical  regions,  and  yet  enjoy 
a  greater  immunity  from  periodical  fevers  than  the 


252  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

inhabitants  of  our  Northern  sea-port  towns.  Siam,  the 
Punjaub,  the  Brazilian  forest-province  of  Entre  Eios, 
and  the  swampy  peninsula  of  Yucatan,  would  be  the 
healthiest  regions  of  this  planet  if  the  absence  of  what 
we  call  malarial  diseases  could  be  accepted  as  a  safe 
criterion  ;  but  the  accounts  of  former  travelers  show 
that  the  same  diseases  were  entirely  unknown  in  regions 
which  are  now  justly  dreaded — by  visitors  from  the 
North.  In  the  valley  of  the  Amazon,  and  on  the 
larger  islands  of  the  West  Indian  archipelago,  fevers 
made  their  first  appearance  with  the  advent  of  European 
colonists.  The  natives  of  Sierra  Leone,  Dr.  Schwein- 
f urth  tells  us,  call  swamp-fever  the  "  English  sickness  " 
— a  disease  confined  to  foreigners.  The  Portuguese 
and  Italians,  people  with  a  natural  predilection  for  a 
frugal  diet,  survive  where  beef-eaters  die  by  hundreds. 
In  Mexico,  where  several  coast-towns  have  become  in- 
ternational sea-ports,  vegetarians  are  almost  the  only 
permanent  foreign  residents ;  native  domestics,  who 
share  the  flesh-pots  of  their  foreign  employers,  die  by 
scores  every  summer.  But  the  necessity  of  such  a  re- 
sult might  have  been  inferred  from -an  a  priori  axiom 
which  seems  to  have  been  no  secret  to  the  ancient  in- 
habitants of  Southern  Europe,  viz.,  that  in  a  warm  cli- 
mate calorific  food  is  incompatible  with  the  constitution 
of  the  human  body.  The  word  fever  (L&tmfebris)  and 
its  equivalents  in  several  other  languages  (Greek  irvpe^ t?, 
Spanish  and  Italian  calentura)  are  derived  from  adjec- 
tives meaning  fervid — hot  or  heated — thus  indicating 
the  chief  characteristic,  and,  according  to  the  ancient 
Greek  and  modern  Spanish  theory,  also  the  chief  cause, 
of  all  pyrexial  disorders.  Man  is  a  native  of  the  tropics, 
and  like  our  next  relatives,  the  anthropoid  four-handers, 
our  primogenitor  subsisted  probably  on  fruits  and  water 


POPULAR   FALLACIES.  253 

— i.  e.,  on  a  refrigerating  diet.  In  subsequent  ages  sev- 
eral tribes  of  the  human  race  emigrated  to  regions 
whose  climate  requires  calorific  food  and  warm  cloth- 
ing. On  returning  to  the  birth-land  of  their  race  these 
wanderers  often  persist  in  habits  compatible  only  with 
a  low  temperature  :  the  combined  influence  of  a  warm 
climate,  warm  clothing,  and  calorific  food  overcomes 
the  vital  power  of  resistance ;  the  inability  of  the  sys- 
tem to  preserve  its  due  mean  temperature  induces  the 
blood-changes  which  characterize  the  symptoms  of  cli- 
matic fevers — the  overheated  blood  ferments.  Humid 
heat  accelerates  the  disintegrating  process ;  but,  that 
humidity  is  only  an  adjuvant  and  not  even  a  necessary 
adjuvant  cause,  is  proved  by  the  immunity  of  fruit- 
eaters  in  the  swampiest  regions  of  the  equatorial  coast- 
lands,  as  well  as  by  the  frequency  of  yellow-fever  epi- 
demics in  such  places  as  Yera  Cruz  and  Pernambuco, 
whose  neighborhood  rivals  that  of  Persepolis  in  sandy 
aridity.  In  other  words,  fevers  are  caused  by  the  folly 
of  aggravating  the  influence  of  the  summer  heat  by  su- 
perfluous clothing  and  calorific  food  (meat,  greasy  made- 
dishes,  and  ardent  spirits),  and  not  by  fruit  or  cold 
water. 

6.  THE  SPA  FALLACY. — According  to  the  theory  of 
the  anti-naturalists,  a  man's  instincts  conspire  for  his 
ruin ;  whatever  is  pleasant  to  our  senses  must  be  in- 
jurious ;  repulsiveness  and  healthfulness  are  synony- 
mous terms.  To  every  poison  known  to  chemistry 
or  botany  they  attribute  remedial  virtues;  to  sweet- 
meats, fruits,  fresh  air,  and  cold  spring- water  all  pos- 
sible morbific  qualities.  But,  for  consistency's  sake, 
they  make  an  exception  in  favor  of  mineral  springs. 
Spas,  impregnated  with  a  sufficient  quantity  of  iron 
or  sulphur  to  be  shockingly  nauseous,  must  therefore 


254:  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

be  highly  salubrious.  Solitary  mountain  -  regions  af- 
flicted with  such  spas  become  the  favorite  resort  of 
invalids ;  dyspeptics  travel  thousands  of  miles  to  reach 
a  spring  that  tastes  like  a  mixture  of  rotten  eggs  and 
turpentine.  Faith  does  wonders,  but  the  cure  of  a  large 
proportion  of  the  many  thousands  who  annually  visit 
such  watering-places  as  Ems,  Carlsbad,  and  White  Sul- 
phur Springs,  need  not  be  ascribed  to  the  effects  of  im- 
agination alone.  The  motion  and  the  excitement  of 
traveling  exert  a  beneficial  influence  on  many  disorders. 
Mountain-air  is  almost  a  panacea.  Woodland  rambles, 
changes  of  diet  and  of  general  habits,  conversation,  and 
even  music,  are  not  unimportant  co-agents  of  materia 
medica.  But  the  spa  itself — in  the  case  of  bona  fide 
health-seekers,  at  least — is  a  decided  drawback  upon 
such  advantages.  Saline  and  sulphur  springs  are  pur- 
gative ;  the  system  hastens  to  rid  itself  of  an  injurious 
substance.  A  very  small  dose  might  operate  as  a  mod- 
erate aperient ;  but  the  trouble  is,  that  the  digestive 
organs  come  to  rely  on  such  excitants  as  they  would 
upon  alcoholic  tonics,  hence  the  chronic  constipations 
that  so  often  follow  upon  the  return  from  a  watering- 
place  trip  :  the  stimulant  being  withdrawn,  the  organs 
become  remiss  in  their  functions.  From  a  hygienic 
standpoint  a  sanitarium  without  a  spa  is  therefore  by 
no  means  a  Hamlet  -  drama  minus  the  Prince ;  the 
mountain-air  of  Meran  in  the  Tyrol  or  the  sweet  grapes 
of  a  Rhenish  Trauben-Kur  are  worth  a  million  sul- 
phur-springs; and,  if  people  knew  half  the  value  of 
up-hill  pedestrian  exercise,  there  would  be  a  "  Hygienic 
Home "  wherever  a  steep  mountain  overlooks  a  popu- 
lous plain. 

7.  THE  ASCETIC  FALLACY. — The  origin  of  asceticism 
is  widely  different  from  that  of  the  frugal  philosophy 


POPULAR  FALLACIES.  255 

which  consoles  itself  with  the  reflection  that  the  reduc- 
tion of  our  wants  is  equivalent  to  the  enlargement  of 
our  means.  A  man  of  simple  habits  may  be  both  hap- 
pier and  healthier  than  the  lover  of  artificial  luxuries, 
but  the  anti-naturalists  make  war  upon  earthly  enjoy- 
ments as  such ;  they  try  to  suppress  harmless  as  well  as 
vicious  pleasures ;  their  aim  is  not  the  reduction  but 
the  destruction  of  our  natural  desires.  The  joy-loving 
Greeks  deified  even  the  aberrations  of  pur  natural 
instincts ;  the  ascetic  condemns  even  their  legitimate 
gratifications.  In  the  world  of  the  mind  as  well  as  in 
the  wonders  of  the  visible  creation,  in  streams  and  pas- 
sions, in  woods  and  dreams,  wherever  the  children  of 
Nature  sought  a  god,  the  anti-naturalists  feared  a  devil ; 
to  the  exponents  of  asceticism  life  is  a  penalty,  and 
earth  the  devil's  vanity-fair,  "  a  fleeting  show,  for  man's 
illusion  given."  They  make  joy  a  crime,  they  tell  us 
that  God  delights  in  the  mortification  of  his  creatures, 
in  the  suppression  of  their  natural  affections :  "  If  any 
man  hate  not  his  father  and  mother  and  wife  and  chil- 
dren and  brothers  and  sisters,  yea,  and  his  own  life,  he 
can  not  be  my  disciple." 

But  this  war  against  Nature  is  the  pendulum's  strug- 
gle against  the  law  of  gravitation  ;  it  is  the  school-boy's 
attempt  to  obstruct  the  sources  of  the  Danube.  Swing- 
ing left,  swinging  right,  the  pendulum  must  return  to 
the  middle ;  the  stream  will  find  its  way  to  the  valley 
athwart  all  dams,  in  spite  of  all  obstructions.  We  can 
not  suppress  the  sources  of  a  natural  instinct ;  all  we 
can  achieve  by  such  attempts  is  to  divert  the  stream 
from  its  normal  course — to  turn  a  natural  into  an  un- 
natural passion.  Education,  i.  e.,  guidance,  does  not 
deserve  its  name  where  it  is  nothing  but  a  blind  strug- 
gle against  Nature.  Few  parents  know  how  much 


256  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION. 

easier  it  is  to  guide  than  to  suppress  the  natural  pro- 
pensities of  a  child.  Obstinate  vices  are  often  merely 
instincts  astray,  perverted  energies  that  might  be  made 
innocuous  by  guiding  them  back  to  their  proper  sphere 
— perverted  faculties  whose  abuse  might  have  been  pre- 
vented by  encouraging  their  right  use.  The  enemies 
of  Nature  seem  to  believe  that  an  instinct  can  be  dead- 
ened by  stifling  its  symptoms,  but  the  history  of  the 
last  eighteen  centuries  has  demonstrated  the  fallacy  of 
that  principle.  They  tried  to  stop  the  stream :  they 
have  only  succeeded  in  turning  it  from  its  natural 
course.  The  attempt  to  suppress  the  pursuit  of  natural 
sciences  led  to  the  pursuit  of  pseudo-sciences — to  super- 
naturalism,  demonism,  and  all  sorts  of  hideous  chimeras. 
The  monastic  exiles  from  human  society  peopled  their 
solitude  with  phantoms.  The  suppression  of  healthful 
pastimes  begot  a  passion  for  vicious  pastimes,  and  made 
the  fancied  identity  of  sin  and  pleasure  a  sad  reality. 
The  suppression  of  rational  freedom  has  led  to  anar- 
chy :  the  pendulum  swings  in  the  opposite  direction  to 
re-establish  the  due  equilibrium.  The  ordinance  of  celi- 
bacy became  the  mother  of  secret  vices;  intolerance 
is  the  parent  of  hypocrisy.  Wherever  asceticism  has 
trampled  the  flowers  of  this  earth,  the  soil  has  pro- 
duced a  rich  crop  of  weeds.  The  pent-up  well-springs 
of  Nature  have  found  new  outlets  through  dark,  under- 
ground currents  that  could  not  fertilize  the  fields,  and 
have  undermined  the  foundations  of  many  useful  build- 
ings before  they  could  regain  the  light  of  day.  What- 
ever liberties  we  now  enjoy  had  thus  to  force  their  way 
through  unnatural  obstructions,  and  the  rise  of  our  new 
civilization  is  merely  the  reappearance  of  a  river  which 
once  flowed  with  a  less  turbulent  and  less  turbid  cur- 
rent. Yet  it  must  flow  on ;  all  opposition  has  proved 


POPULAR  FALLACIES.  257 

in  vain,  for  each  re-enforcement  of  the  mole  has  also 
re-enforced  the  pressure  of  the  waters. 

Shall  we  persist  in  a  hopeless  endeavor  ?  The  dam- 
builders  are  still  at  work,  but  the  rising  stream  surges 
with  ominous  eddies,  constantly  threatening  to  burst 
through  all  obstructions  and  cover  the  valley  with 
wreck  and  ruin.  There  is  only  one  remedy :  We  must 
reopen  the  natural  channel.  We  must  repair  and  im- 
prove its  ancient  banks — remove  the  dam  that  obstructs 
the  stream,  and  build  a  dike  along  the  shore. 

The  religion  of  the  ancients  exalted  vice  as  well  as 
Nature.  Our  present  religion  suppresses  Nature  as 
well  as  vice.  The  religion  of  the  future  will  teach  us 
to  distinguish  between  vice  and  Nature. 


THE   END. 


FOUR  VALUABLE  BOOKS  FOR  TEACHERS. 


Education:   Intellectual,  Moral,  and  Physical. 

By  HERBERT  SPENCER.  12mo,  cloth,  $1.25.  Cheap  edition,  12mo,  paper 
50  cents. 

CONTENTS  :  I.  What  Knowledge  is  of  Most  Worth  ?  II.  Intellectual  Educa- 
tion ;  III.  Moral  Education  ;  IV.  Physical  Education. 

"  The  keynote  of  this  treatise  is,  that  Nature  has  a  method  of  intellectual, 
moral,  and  physical  development,  which  should  afford  the  guiding  principles  of 
all  teaching.  Its  wise  suggestions— for  there  is  nothing  dogmatic  in  its  pages- 
are  the  result  of  not  a  little  keen  observation,  and  it  lias  become  an  authority 
because  Us  indications  have  been  attested  by  common  sense  and  verified  as  true 
by  experience."— Mew  York  Mail. 

Education  as  a  Science. 

By  ALEXANDER  BAIN,  LL.  D.,  Professor  of  Logic  in  the  University  of 
Aberdeen.  (Forming  a  volume  of  "  The  International  Scientific 
Series.")  12mo,  cloth,  $1.75. 

CONTENTS:  I.  Scope  of  the  Science  of  Education ;  II.  Bearings  of  Physiology ; 
in.  Bearings  of  Psychology;  IV.  Terms  explained;  V.  Education  Values ;  VI. 
Sequence  of  Subjects:  Psychological;  VTI.  Sequence  of  Subjects:  Logical; 
VIII.  Methods;  IX.  The  Mother  Tongue ;  X.  The  Value  of  the  Classics:  XI. 
The  Renovated  Curriculum  ;  XII.  Moral  Education  ;  XIII.  Art  Education ;  XIV. 
Proportions,  Appendix,  Further  Examples  of  the  Object-Lesson,  Passing  Ex- 
planations of  Terms. 

Principles  and  Practice  of  Teaching. 

By  JAMES  JOHONNOT.    12mo,  cloth,  $1.50. 

CONTENTS  :  I.  What  is  Education ;  II.  The  Mental  Powers :  their  Order  of 
Development,  and  the  Methods  most  conducive  to  Normal  Growth  ;  III.  Objec- 
tive Teaching :  its  Methods,  Aims,  and  Principles;  IV.  Subjective  Teaching :  its 
Aims  and  Place  in  the  Course  of  Instruction  ;  V.  Object-Lessons :  their  Value 
and  Limitations  ;  VI.  Relative  Value  of  the  Different  Studies  in  a  Course -of  In- 
struction ;  VII.  Pestalozzl,  and  his  Contributions  to  Educational  Science ;  VIII. 
Froebel  and  the  Kindergarten  ;  IX.  Agassiz  ;  and  Science  in  its  Relation  to 
Teaching ;  X.  Contrasted  Systems  of  Education  ;  XI.  Physical  Culture ;  XII. 
^Esthetic  Culture  ;  XIII.  Moral  Culture ;  XIV.  A  Course  of  Study .  XV.  Coun- 
try Schools. 

The  Art  of  School  Management. 

A  Text-book  for  Normal  Schools  and  Normal  Institutes,  and  a  Reference- 
book  for  Teachers,  School-officers,  and  Parents.  By  J.  BALDWIN, 
President  of  the  State  Normal  School,  Kirksville,  Missouri.  12mo, 
cloth,  $1.50. 

CONTENTS  :  I.  Educational  Instrumentalities  ;  II.  School  Organization  ;  III. 
School  Government ;  IV.  Course  of  Study  and  Programme ;  V.  Study  and 
Teaching;  VI.  Class  Management  and  Class  Work ;  VII.  Management  of  Graded 
Schools  ;  VIII.  Grading,  Examinations,  Records,  and  Reports  ;  IX.  Profes- 
sional Education  ;  X.  Educational  Systems,  Educational  Progress,  and  School 
Supervision. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  I,  3,  &>  $  Bond  St.,  New  York. 


APPLETONS'    READERS. 


SOME  DISTINGUISHING  FEATURES. 

Modern  Methods  made  easy.— Education  is  a  progressive  science.  Meth- 
ods of  the  last  century  must  be  discarded.  The  question  "How  shall  we  teach 
reading  ? "  is  fully  answered  in  these  books,  and  teachers  who  have  adopted 
and  followed  this  method  have  greatly  improved  their  schools. 

Word  and  Phonic  Method. — By  taking  at  first  words  -with  which  the  child 
is  quite  familiar,  and  which  contain  sounds  easily  distinguished  and  continu- 
ally recurring,  both  teacher  and  pupil  will  find  the  sounds  a  great  help  in 
reading  new  words  as  well  as  in  acquiring  a  distinct  articulation. 

Spelling.— Words  selected  from  the  lessons  are  given  for  spelling  with 
each  piece,  thus  affording  the  best  opportunity  for  oral  and  written  spelling- 
lessons  as  well  as  for  definitions.  In  the  Third,  Fourth,  and  Fifth  Readers, 
graded  exercises  in  spelling  analysis,  together  with  daily  lessons  of  words  often 
misspelled  or  mispronounced,  are  placed  in  the  Appendix  for  constant  study 
With  these  Readers  no  "  Speller  "  will  be  needed. 

Illustrations.— The  illustrations  are  beautiful  and  attractive,  and  are  well 
adapted  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  language  and  thought  lessons  that  are  so 
prominent  in  these  books. 

Helps  for  Teachers. — Teachers  will  find  in  these  books  a  simple  plan  that 
will  greatly  aid  them  ;  while  the  notes,  questions,  and  suggestions  will  help  the 
teacher  to  impart  the  most  instruction  and  the  best  culture,  which  makes  the 
reading-lesson  something  more  than  a  mere  naming  of  words. 

Oral  Reading. — Proper  oral  expression  depends  on  the  sense.  Get  the  sense 
of  each  extract  and  the  correct  oral  expression  will  be  an  easy  matter.  This  is 
the  key-note  to  Professor  Bailey's  excellent  lessons  on  accent,  emphasis,  inflec- 
tion, and  general  vocal  expression,  that  are  placed  as  reading-lessons  in  the 
Third,  Fourth,  and  Fifth  Readers. 

Selections.— The  selections  embrace  gems  of  literature  from  leading  authors. 
No  other  Readers  include  such  a  wide  range  of  thought,  showing  from  the  sim- 
ple stories  for  children  in  the  earlier  books,  to  the  extracts  from  the  best  authors 
in  the  Fourth  and  Fifth,  unity  of  design  and  a  just  appreciation  of  the  needs  of 
our  schools. 

Great  Success.— Since  the  publication  of  these  Readers,  their  sale  has  aver- 
aged nearly  a  million  a  year,  which  is  unprecedented  in  the  sale  of  school-books. 

Endorsements.— These  Readers  have  received  the  endorsement  of  nearly 
every  educator  of  note  in  the  United  States,  but  the  best  proof  of  their  merits  is 
found  in  the  great  improvement  manifested  everywhere  they  are  used. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

New  York,  Boston,  Chicago,  and  San  Francisco. 


Appletons'  Elementary  Reading 


CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 
CHARTS 


FORTY-SIX  NUMBERS. 


Prepared  by  REBECCA  D.  RICKOFF. 


Designed  to  make  learning  to  read  a  pleasant  pastime. 
Designed  to  cultivate  the  observing  powers  of  children. 
Designed  to  teach  the  first  steps  of  reading  in  the  right  way. 
Designed  to  train  the  mind  of  the  child  by  philosophical  methods. 
Designed  to  furnish  the  primary  classes  with  a  variety  of  inter- 
esting occupations  in  school-hours. 

Every  step  in  advance  is  in  a  logical  order  of  progression  and 
development. 

Pictures,  objects,  and  things  are  employed,  rather  than  abstract 
rules  and  naked  type. 

The  beautiful  and  significant  illustrations  are  an  especially  notice- 
able and  attractive  feature  of  these  charts. 

Every  chart  in  the  series  has  in  view  a  definite  object,  which  is 
thoroughly  and  systematically  developed. 

They  are  in  accord  with  the  educational  spirit  of  the  day,  and 
with  the  methods  followed  by  the  best  instructors. 

They  are  the  only  charts  planned  with  special  reference  to  the 
cultivation  of  language  and  the  power  of  expression. 

They  follow  the  natural  method  of  teaching,  appealing  to  those 
faculties  of  the  child  that  are  most  easily  awakened,  and  in- 
citing correct  mental  processes  at  the  outset. 

These  charts  introduce  a  new  and  improved  mode  of  suspension 
while  in  use,  a  feature  of  much  practical  value. 

These  charts  should  be  in  every  primary-school  room  in  the  country. 


K3T°  The  Charts,  27  x  34  inches  in  size,  are  printed  upon  strong,  flexible, 
tinted  paper,  and  firmly  bound  at  the  upper  margin,  where  they  are  attached  to 
the  Supporter  frame.  They  are  turned  back  over  the  frame  when  in  use,  expos 
ing  to  view  any  one  in  the  set  desired. 

Price,  per  set,  forty-six  numbers,  with  Supporter,  $10.00. 

Price  of  Supporter,  without  Charts,  $2.00. 


ID.  AIPIPLETOiKr  Sc  OCX, 
New  York,  Boston,  Chicago,  and  San  Francisco. 


P  RIMERS 

IN  SCIENCE,    HISTORY,    AND    LITERATURE. 
18mo.    .    .     .    Flexible  cloth,  45  cents  each. 

L— Edited  by  Professors  HUXLEY,  ROSCOE,  and  BALFOUR 
STEWART. 

SCIENCE    PRIMERS. 

Introductory T.  H.  HUXLEY. 

Chemistry H.  E.  KOSCOE. 

Physics BALFOUR  STEWART. 

Physical  Geography A.  GEIKIE. 

Geology A.  GEIKIB. 

Physiology M.  FOSTER. 

Astronomy J.  N.  LOCKYER. 

Botany J.  D.  HOOKER. 

Logic W.  S.  JEVONS. 

In ventional  Geometry W.  G.  SPENCER. 

Pianoforte FRANKLIN  TAYLOR. 

Political  Economy W.  S.  JEVONS. 


JI.— Edited  by  J.  R.  GREEN,  M.  A.,  Examiner  in  the  School  of  Modern 
History  at  Oxford. 

HISTORY    PRIMERS. 

Greece C.A.FYFFE. 

Rome M.  CBEIGHTON. 

Europe ? E.  A.  FREEMAN. 

Old  Greek  Life J.  P.  MAHAFFY. 

Roman  Antiquities A.  S.  WILKINS. 

Geography * GEORGE  GROVE. 


HI— Edited  by  J.  R.  GREEN,  M.  A. 

LITERATURE     PRIMERS. 

English  Grammar R.  MORRIS. 

English  Literature STOPFORD  A.  BROOKE. 

Philology J.  PEILE. 

Classical  Geography M.  F.  TOZER. 

Shakespeare E.  DOWDEN. 

Studies  in  Bryant J.  ALDEN. 

Greek  Literature R.  C.  JKBB. 

English  Grammar  Exercises R.  MORRIB. 

Homer W.  E.  GLADSTONE. 

English  Composition J.  NICHOL. 

(OtJurs  in  preparation.) 

The  object  of  these  primers  is  to  convey  information  in  such  a  manner  as 
to  make  it  both  intelligible  and  interesting  to  very  young  pupils,  and  BO  to  dis- 
cipline their  minds  as  to  incline  them  to  more  systematic  after-studies.  In  the 
Science  Series  some  simple  experiments  have  been  devised,  leading  up  to  the 
chief  truths  of  each  science.  By  this  means  the  pupil's  interest  is  excited,  and 
the  memory  is  impressed  so  as  to  retain  without  difficulty  the  facts  brought 
cnder  observation.  The  woodcuts  which  illustrate  these  primers  serve  the 
•ame  purpose,  embellishing  and  explaining  the  text  at  the  same  time. 

D.  APPLETON  &>  CO.,  Publishers,  New  York. 


The  Works  of  Professor  E.  L  YODMANS,  M.  D. 


Class-book  of  Chemistry. 

New  edition.     12mo.     Cloth,  $1.50. 

The  Hand-book  of  Household  Science. 

A  Popular  Account  of  Heat,  Light,  Air,  Aliment,  and  Cleansing, 
in  their  Scientific  Principles  and  Domestic  Applications.  12mo. 
Illustrated.  Cloth,  $1.75. 

The  Culture  demanded  by  Modern  Life. 

A  Series  of  Addresses  and  Arguments  on  the  Claims  of  Scientific 
Education.  Edited,  with  an  Introduction  on  Mental  Discipline  in 
Education.  1  vol.,  12mo.  Cloth.  $2.00. 

Correlation  and  Conservation  of  Forces. 

A  Series  of  Expositions  by  Professor  Grove,  Professor  Helmholtz, 
Dr.  Mayer,  Dr.  Faraday,  Professor  Liebig,  and  Dr.  Carpenter. 
Edited,  with  an  Introduction  and  Brief  Biographical  Notices  of 
the  Chief  Promoters  of  the  New  Views,  by  EDWARD  L.  YOUMANS, 
M.  D.  1  vol.,  12mo.  Cloth,  $2.00. 


The  Popular  Science  Monthly. 

Conducted  by  E.  L.  and  W.  J.  YOUMANS. 

Containing  instructive  and  interesting  articles  and  abstracts  of  articles, 
original,  selected,  and  illustrated,  from  the  pens  of  the  leading  scientific 
men  of  different  countries ; 

Accounts  of  important  scientific  discoveries  ; 

The  application  of  science  to  the  practical  arts ; 

The  latest  views  put  forth  concerning  natural  phenomena,  by  savants 
of  the  highest  authority. 

TERMS  :  Five  dollars  per  annum  ;  or  fifty  cents  per  number.  A  Club 
of  five  will  be  sent  to  any  address  for  $20.00  per  annum. 

The  volumes  begin  May  and  November  of  each  year.  Subscriptions 
may  begin  at  any  time. 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO..  PUBLISHERS,  1,  3,  &  5  BOND  STREET.  NEW 


A  rich  list  of  fruitful  topics." 

BOSTON  COMMONWEALTH. 


HEALTH  AND  EDUCATION, 

By  the   REV.    CHARLES   KINGSLEY,   F.  L.  S.,    F.  G.   S., 

CANON  OF  WESTMINSTER. 


I2mo.     Cloth Price,  $i.  75. 

"  It  is  most  refreshing  to  meet  an  earnest  soul,  and  such,  preeminently,  is  Charles 
Kingsley,  and  he  has  shown  himself  such  in  every  thing  he  has  written,  from  '  Alton 
Locke '  and  '  Village  Sermons,'  a  quarter  of  a  century  since,  to  the  present  volume,  which 
is  no  exception.  Here  are  fifteen  Essays  and  Lectures,  excellent  and  interesting  in 
different  degrees,  but  all  exhibiting  the  author's  peculiar  characteristics  of  thought 
and  style,  and  some  of  them  blending  most  valuable  instruction  with  entertainment, 
as  few  living  writers  can." — Hartford  Post. 

"That  the  title  of  this  book  is  not  expressive  of  its  actual  contents,  is  made  mani- 
fest by  a  mere  glance  at  its  pages ;  it  is,  in  fact,  a  collection  of  Essays  and  Lectures, 
written  and  delivered  upon  various  occasions  by  its  distinguished  author;  as  such  it 
cannot  be  otherwise  than  readable,  and  no  intelligent  mind  needs  to  be  assured  that 
Charles  Kingsley  is  fascinating,  whether  he  treats  of  Gothic  Architecture,  Natural 
History,  or  the  Education  of  Women.  The  lecture  on  Thrift,  which  was  intended  for 
the  women  of  England,  may  be  read  with  profit  and  pleasure  by  the  women  of 
everywhere." — St.  Louis  Democrat. 

"  The  book  contains  exactly  what  every  one  needs  to  know,  and  in  a  form  which 
every  one  can  understand." — Boston  Journal. 

"  This  volume  no  doubt  contains  his  best  thoughts  on  ajl  the  most  important  topics 
of  the  day." — Detroit  Post. 

"Nothing  could  be  better  or  more  entertaining  for  the  family  library." — Zion's 
Herald. 

"  For  the  style  alone,  and  for  the  vivid  pictures  frequently  presented,  this  latest 
production  of  Mr.  Kingsley  commends  itself  to  readers.  The  topics  treated  are 
mostly  practical,  but  the  manner  is  always  the  manner  of  a  master  in  composition. 
Whether  discussing  the  abstract  science  of  health,  the  subject  of  ventilation,  the 
education  of  the  different  classes  that  form  English  society,  natural  history,  geology, 
heroic  aspiration,  superstitious  fears,  or  personal  communication  with  Nature,  we 
find  the  same  freshness  of  treatment,  and  the  same  eloquence  and  affluence  of  language 
that  distinguish  the  productions  in  other  fields  of  this  gifted  author." — Boston  Gazette. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

1,  3,  (k  5  Bond  Street,  New  York. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


DEC 


URL    JAN  26  1976 


««. 


APR1&1976 


Form  L9-Series  444 


" ii  IMII  11111  inn  111 1|  mi  mi 

A     000  035  657    6 


DO  NOT  REMOVE 
THIS  BOOK  CARD 


613 


University  Research  Library 


4950 


moat 


